In a mere 60 minutes, Mary Portas set out to put the retail world to rights at Autumn Fair last week, sharing her views on everything from the bringing together of communities as retail’s future, to how Marks & Spencer should look at a new UK based manufacturing sourcing strategy.
In conversation with Mark Faithfull, editor of World Retail Congress, which took place on Autumn Fair’s Inspiring Retail Stage, she pointed out that retail, especially in the ‘80s, had been based on greed and gain, where companies chased profit at any cost. “However, in recent years, things have changed, with businesses needing to put people and the planet before profit,” she emphasised.
“I have changed my business completely, based around the kindness economy,” she told attendees. “To achieve success today, you have to create a symbiosis between business and people. There are still old societal behaviours that are hanging on, but change is happening and businesses need to take creative, imaginative leaps.”
Commenting on the current energy crisis, Mary said that an important lesson the pandemic has taught us all is that we are all inter-connected. “Therefore if the government can come together with business we can find a solution,” she predicted, adding: “We will also see local businesses coming together to work things out and change the way we do things. It’s about looking at other ways of doing business that will give us hope for the future. Since the pandemic we have seen a growth in community and while it hasn’t got to retail yet, it will.”
Added Mary: “The pandemic was the biggest seismic shift we have seen and it’s carrying on. We have to respond to the ‘now’ from our hearts. Great retail must be about creativity, it’s fundamental, and is also about being nimble. It’s about understanding the cultural shifts, feeling them and understanding humanity. It’s about not being too controlled. The new value business system is about understanding that this is not only about price, but about people and what business can do for the world. For example, we are seeing growth in re-use, recycling and upcycling,and in the future we will see a kinder, better way to do business.”
Asked for her views on the influence of Gen Z, (people born between 1997-2012), she was full of praise. “They are a great generation because they are looking at the world in a different way to previous generations. They have a consciousness.”
As for the increased cost of using the supply chain, especially in relation to importing from China, Mary believes that companies should look to manufacturing in the UK. “Big companies such as Marks & Spencer need to do that, and to ask the government for tax breaks. The company needs to switch to British manufacture and to bring in British designers which would drive more British women to shop there,” she stated.
Asked about the future of retail, Mary said that she’s seeing “retailers with soul” as the winners, as opposed to those “churning out the same old thing. “Let’s get behind the independents and SME’s. They are the future. It’s the reason why I’ve got so much hope for the future of retail.”
During a lively Q&A, Mary also predicted that retail rental has got huge potential, “although we do need another name for it,” she insisted. On the thorny subject of a solution to unfair business rates, she stressed it was political, “and it still hasn’t broken through,” she commented. As for how to make a shop a retail destination, she stressed it had to have the sort of ambience where people love come in. “Always think, what can I tell them, what can I give them to make them want to shop with me.”
Responding to a question about the current cost of living crisis, Mary pointed out that, depending on margins, retailers should “play it by ear. Do random acts of kindness, and if the price is too high for someone, have an instinctive response and bring the cost down slightly.”
Mary’s latest book. Rebuild, draws on her decades of retail business experience which includes being on the board of Harvey Nicholls and running her own agency Yellow Door. Proud to call herself an activist, she is also a retail consultant, broadcaster and author, as well as the founder and a chain of 26 charity shops.
