Snogging Strangers Is On Hold + Some Useful Twitter Accounts

Thanks to Hendo Wang for sharing their work on Unsplash.

According to our calendars, the summer break is over, but this week’s weather in London has been a distraction from work.

The people at Next and John Lewis Partnership have been busy despite the sunshine and published their trading results this week.

Retail has suffered in the pandemic, but it’s not all bad.

While John Jewis cut its partnership bonus for the first time since 1948, it does have the saving grace of Waitrose (more on Sky). Next’s online / offline mix has helped it lose less than expected, making it the biggest FTSE riser yesterday (more in The Guardian).

Yet, I’m more interested in their guidance for the New Year. Most retailers make their fortunes in the run up to the winter party season and are preparing for this critical time already.

Since Covid is basically scrooge, is Christmas cancelled?

Next expects lower sales of party dresses because the usual drunken revelry of December is going to be scaled back (oh the pain!). This means lower expected sales at the company.

John Lewis has a different view and the management believes people are still going to want to treat themselves.

Essentially, snogging strangers in fast fashion is on hold, but comfy throws for the sofa and tasty Waitrose treats are in.

I can’t imagine that we will all want to sit at home soberly in our sweatpants, but collections are inevitably going to have a different mix this year.

There is an interesting debate about consumer trends and fashion retail on Twitter. If you want to join the discussion, here are some good accounts to follow:

1. Jonathan Eley, Retail Correspondent at the Financial Times
2. Deirdre Hipwell, Retail reporter at Bloomberg
3. Hannah Uttley, Business reporter at The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph covering consumer goods, hospitality, luxury and pharmaceuticals
4. Ashley Armstrong, Retail and M&A Editor for The Times
5. Zoe Wood, Retail corespondent at The Guardian and The Observer
6. Laura Onita, Retail Correspondent at The Telegraph
7. Sophia Matveeva, aka yours truly! Enty & Tech for Non-Techies Founder, Columnist, Chicago Booth MBA

If you have other recommendations for fashion / retail Twitter, please tell comment below or Tweet at me. I would love to know!

For business news, Twitter is my go-to. If I want to see actual collections and luxury fashion, then Instagram is better.

Our event series is going to be back in October. We are putting the final touches on the membership offering, so you’ll finally be able to get access to all the recordings and stay in touch via a community.

Until then, you can get useful insights on consumer trends, marketing and fashion tech in our Creativity and Capitalism podcast.

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