While same-day delivery and free returns are eroding much of the rest: we’ve now reached the point that it’s not clear that there is anything that cannot be bought online. But actually, the real barrier now is often not touching it, but knowing about it. These are things where a lot of the role of a physical shop is curation, recommendation and... See more

While social media has created opportunities for purchase inspiration similar to a beautifully-merchandised department store window, we’re still in the early days of Instagram Shops. Replicating discovery in the way that people organically find things in-store has so far proved elusive, resulting in fewer opportunities to grow transaction size.

The discovery process is broken — the fragmented market is making it impossible for customers to navigate which brands they should be paying attention to. On top of this, consumer fog and confusion has alienated people, making them feel “out of the know” and “uncool” because they can’t keep up (an unfortunate side effect for brands that set out to... See more