Archive for the ‘France’ Category

What is retail’s future?

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

emea-retailPosted by: Jonathan Bayfield
Retail Research & Consulting
Jones Lang LaSalle EMEA Research

 

Three months after joining Jones Lang LaSalle as a graduate in the Retail Research team – I thought I should have a look into where I think the current retail market is and peer into its future.

The shopping centre or high street of yesterday is a thing of the past. Customers, myself very much included, are searching for a multi-channel combination of accessibility and, more importantly, experience. This new type of consumer is demanding more from the retailer than ever before. I want to have freedom to shop when, how and wherever I want. Whenever I look to buy in store, I will have looked online and vice versa. In fact, often I’ll be browsing my phone, sending my friend’s pictures of what I am trying on and they’ll be sending me information about what else is out there. Radical structural change is taking shape, which the real estate industry must adapt to. This video of London’s new Burberry store showcases the store of the future, the merger of the high street with e-commerce.

‘Experience’ focused stores, which marry elements  of e-commerce (such as Burberry’s) in super-prime locations, such as London’s Regent Street, are the growing trend for international retailers, as our team has detailed in the recent Destination Europe 2013 report.

Retail’s future is clearly going to have an ever increasing engagement with the internet. As a big fan of my iPhone, I am not surprised to note in this BCSC report, that 25% of total UK sales are expected to be driven by m-commerce (mobile) by 2020.

As shoppers increasingly become visitors of retail space, the shop experience becomes more crucial for brand engagement as new consumers can shop on the move anytime and anywhere. London’s Niketown,  in the prime location of Oxford Circus, has been a leader of this engagement for a number of years. Much to my family’s frustration, I would love to kick a football around on day trips to London and watch the latest extended edition adverts in store, never buying anything there and then.

The latest type of commerce predicted to start making more and more powerful waves in the sector, is s-commerce. This is essentially the effective use of (online) social networks to promote and sell good. Retail Specialists, Conlumino, have analysed s-commerce’s likely growth and claim that over the next five years, the value in the UK will rise from £1.6 billion today to around £3.3 billion. Retailers using sites such as Facebook, Four Square and Twitter to drive sales and footfall to stores are likely to be ahead of the market, for a consumer like me at least.

Posted in France, Germany, Retail 2020, UK | No Comments »

MAPIC 2012: Emerging market opportunity – Core market priority

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

Dominic BouvetPosted by:
Dominic Bouvet
Pan European Retail Agency

Having landed safely on British soil and back into the swing of normal – non-conference life – I have been asked by my colleagues what the sentiment at Mapic was like. JLL’s latest research suggests, and pardon my crude summary, that we have observed burgeoning success of the emerging growth markets and these markets provide some attractive expansion opportunities for retailers with established growth strategies.

A perfect example is Swedish retailer H&M. Ranked second, just below Zara in terms of % of coverage across Europe’s key markets, it currently has a presence in 96% of markets covered. With plans to open stores in Mexico, Malaysia and Kuwait over the next 18 months, H&M clearly has its sights on furthering its global coverage. This resonates loud and clear that retailers with a strong and translatable position should and clearly are exploring international expansion.

However, even though there is little doubt that European retailers understand the huge opportunity in the emerging markets, such as the BRIC countries, from the discussions I had at MAPIC retailers are realising that entering these markets with multiple stores is not as easy as first anticipated and there are several reasons for this, including high property costs, high land values, political difficulties and logistical issues. The European retailers that I met in Cannes are hence re-focusing on their core portfolio of stores in prime shopping centres and on the high streets, which is encouraging news for all those involved in the European retail market.

To summarise, the opportunity for retailers to grow their portfolio is inevitable in the emerging markets, but it is essential that they do not forget their core markets!

Posted in CEE, France, Germany, MAPIC, Russia, Turkey, UK | No Comments »

Boulevard Haussmann- The prime retail axe is spreading out from its heart

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Paul Cooper
Consultant
France

Available in French

A walk around the Boulevard Haussmann and Opéra quarters can tell you much about French retail at the present time.  One begins the journey in  pure  mass market territory with  a dense cluster of mass market retailers leading down from Saint Lazare or through Passages du Havre along rue du Havre.  Once on the boulevard the major international brands  are all visible and vying for a place next to the Department store super anchors of Printemps and Galeries Lafayette that make this  one of the prime locations  in Paris along with the Champs Elysées.   Their window dressings and Christmas lights alone are capable of attracting huge footfall levels and the coach loads of high spending tourists that pull up outside the French retail institutions are a major plus that few retail pitches can offer.

With opportunities limited and vacancy at 0%, new entrants to the market have opted for pitches close to the main high street at the Opéra quarter, along Rue Halévy and Rue Scribe.  Notable brands include APPLE, Desigual, NESPRESSO, UNIQLO along with the latest H&M, all clustered around the iconic Opéra. 

Secondary streets such as Rue de Provence and Chausée d’Antin have seen development over recent years with the influx of fast food and restaurant concepts and increasingly high footfall down these secondary streets.  It now remains to be seen how the new St Lazare project now well into its construction phase will impact consumer habits with its location at the opposite end of the high street to Opéra creating an additional option for consumers.  The sector has become a retail district with an impressive mix of traditional high street and international luxury goods and it is clear retailers want to be on the prime axe and if they cannot be there, well they’ll get as close as possible and reinforce the cluster of retail opportunities.  Expect the Haussmann district to continue to be one of the global retail locations for many years to come.

Posted in France | No Comments »

Multi-speed recovery across Europe

Monday, March 7th, 2011

Thomas Powell Jones Lang LaSalle

Posted by: Tom Powell
Researcher, Retail Research & Consulting
Jones Lang LaSalle EMEA Research

Much like the impact of the recent economic downturn and the multi speed economic recovery that is emerging, the current state and outlook for retail across Europe is also mixed. Retail sales declined, on average, by 13.8% year-on-year in Latvia from 2007 to 2010 but were far more resilient in Russia (+3.5% p.a. from 2007 to 2010), Poland (+3.9% p.a. from 2007 to 2010) and Sweden (+1.6% p.a. from 2007 to 2010).

Looking forward, forecast average year-on-year retail sales growth between now and 2015 ranges from 7.0% in the Ukraine to -0.3% in Portugal. The outlook for retail in Germany is broadly positive after years of retail sales declines (+1.6% p.a. to 2015). The United Kingdom is expected to record sustained growth over the coming years of 2.3% per annum until 2015. France is forecast to record marginal growth of 0.8% per annum over the same period. Elsewhere in western and southern Europe the outlook is more benign with Belgium (-0.2% p.a. to 2015) and the Netherlands (-0.1% p.a. to 2015) anticipating marginal retail sales declines. Similarly, the Iberian Peninsula is expected to lag as Spain (+0.3% p.a. to 2015) and Portugal (-0.3% p.a. to 2015) battle tough labour market conditions and record levels of debt.

Eastern Europe is forecast to record significant retail sales growth to 2015 as consumer confidence across the likes of Russia (+5.8% p.a. to 2015), Hungary (+1.7% p.a. to 2015), and Poland (+3.7% p.a. to 2015) continue to recover well from the lows of 2009, driven by strong economic performance and improving unemployment rates. Equally, the state of the retail market in the Nordic region appears healthy with Sweden (+2.1% p.a. to 2015) in particular set to benefit from strong public finances and robust domestic consumption.

The general outlook for retail over the next few years is therefore very mixed with some European markets expecting a more favourable outlook than others. There are, however, still pockets of strong growth prospects at a regional level, within some of the lagging markets, despite the strong headwinds faced at a national level.

Posted in France, Germany, Turkey, UK | No Comments »

Pre MAPIC Musings

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Robert Bonwell Jones Lang LaSalleBy Robert Bonwell
CEO EMEA Retail
Jones Lang LaSalle

As I travel to Cannes for MAPIC and contemplate what to expect this year, four thoughts come to mind. Firstly 2010 – it’s been a much better year for retail of course.  Meaning economically in comparison with 2009, development-wise in some markets and refurbishment in others, and a refocus on the true values of running of shopping centres as businesses – suddenly asset management is king again!

Whether you are a retailer from the USA, Turkey or a franchise partnership from the Middle East, there have been lots of opportunities in new and existing countries to continue your expansion, but it’s harder to find the turnover and profit numbers in some locations. I hope the mood at MAPIC for 2010 reflects the general positive sentiment.

As for 2011, I heard someone comment that the year would be “normalised”, but I have to disagree. I think we will see capital markets continue to improve and I think the retailers will be strong; however, it’s going to be even harder to calculate how to balance risk and return as well as working out how to drive asset management. So one of my aims at MAPIC is to use our Retail2020 programme not just to look over the next 10 years but to gauge the sentiment for the nearer term, in other words 2011.

Finally I think of France, this year’s country of honour at MAPIC, which is still one of the most powerful retail countries in Europe. France’s position on the European stage will remain strong, thanks to its strength of quality retail investors and developers, its regional and global power via supermarket brands and an unrivalled position in the luxury goods brands. But internally it needs change – planning restrictions on development, the need for new shopping centres and brands all mean that France has an opportunity to move to another level and step well ahead of many countries in Europe.

Here’s to a great MAPIC 2010!

Posted in France, MAPIC 2010 | No Comments »