Field Notes
Notes from the floor.
Practical thinking on selling, leading and running great retail — short, useful reads from people who've actually done the job.
Boohoo's €2.3 Million Fine Is Every Shop's Problem
95% of Boohoo's "sale" prices weren't real. Here's the EU rule behind the fine, and why every small retailer running a Black Friday sale needs to know it.
How to win a customer: tale of one shoe, two loyalty programmes
Retailers have never spent more on loyalty programmes, and customers have never been easier to lose. The gap between the two is usually standing on the shop floor, or not.
Your Customer Already Has An Advisor...They Need Something Else From You
Shoppers now arrive pre-briefed by an AI that is confident, fast and occasionally wrong. Eighty-three per cent already believe they know more than the person serving them. If your floor staff exist to supply information, that job has gone; if they exist to supply judgement, it has only just started.
You Cannot Pay Your Employees To Care More
Retail keeps trying to buy loyalty with wages. The frontline is asking for something cheaper, and much harder to give.
€519 Price Tag on Replacing a Cashier: Well done Liège!
Liège is taxing the machine that replaced your cashier. I'm on the workers' side here, but I don't think a €519 levy saves many jobs. Here's what I'd do with the money instead.
Big Fashion: Stop Burning Clothes
From 19 July, big fashion brands can't burn unsold clothes anymore. You're exempt if you're small, but the stock they used to torch now floods your market. Here's how to be on the right side of it.
The Packaging Rulebook that Lands on Small Shops in August
In 4 weeks the EU's new packaging law switches on, and there's no exemption for small shops. Here's the trap hiding in one word: "producer."
Stop Worrying About AI. Start Using It.
Forget the hype. Forget the fear. The real question is practical: Where can AI actually move the needle for my business? The answer is clearer than you might think.
The €3 Parcel Charge, and Why Your Shop Should Care
The EU just put a €3 charge on the cheap parcels flooding in from Shein and Temu. It's not the wall some shops are hoping for, but it changes your sales pitch.
The Screen Is Not the Solution
If your operations are messy, digitising them just makes a bigger mess. Digital transformation is not about screens, interfaces or new programmes. It is about what happens on the shopfloor because of them.
The "Cancel Button" the EU Just Made Mandatory
Last Friday the EU made the "cancel" button mandatory for every online shop. Amazon, AliExpress and few others have had it for years. Here's why catching up is good news for honest sellers and a 4% headache for everyone who relied on friction.
The Promotion That Changes Everything
Most retail managers get promoted because they were exceptional at doing the job. But the moment you step into management, the skills that got you promoted are no longer the skills that will make you successful. The hardest part is letting go of your identity as the expert and embracing your role as the enabler. And that's where the new success lies.
Pay Just Went Public, Ready or Not...
The Directive won't add a single euro to anyone's wage by itself. What it does is "turn the lights on", and most of the fear around it is really fear of what the light will show.
Most Doors Ask for Something First
Almost three million young Europeans are waiting for a door to open. I've been thinking about which doors are actually still open to them.
One useful idea, every fortnight.
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