Oliver Banks of OB&Co

Hi Reader, I find the whole argument of "physical stores are dead vs physical stores are not dead" quite boring. The answer seems pretty obvious to me.... essentially there are 3 broad avenues to go down. The Good: Physical stores can be an excellent channel and outlet when executed well. They can serve as inspirational outlets and desirable destinations which serve customers and help them feel genuinely valued by the brand and the store team. The Bad: Physical stores that don't operate...

Hi Reader, Amazon's CFO has suggested that the upcoming peak season could be won through discounts. Brian Olsavsky said "We still see customers remaining cautious about price, trading down where they can and seeking out deals". And consistent with the trend of recent years, many retailers have already started their Black Friday promotions as the ongoing trend of extending BF/CM's duration continues. However, as with all price wars and competitive markets, the proof is in the bottom line....

Hi Reader, Today marks a special day for me.... it's the podcast's 5th birthday. What started as an experiment has provided plenty of transformative moments for me. From scaling up my consultancy services, to coaching, to keynote speaking, to hosting events and to writing my upcoming book. But my main aim continues to be about helping you transform better. Helping you to understand the evolving retail market and how you can change too. So I'd really love to hear from you - what would you...

Hi Reader, In this week's podcast, I'm excited to reveal our new Path To Profitability consulting service. Profitability remains perhaps the most stubborn and broad challenge in the industry and impacts retailers across categories, channels and niches. This project has been in the works for a few months and opens collaboration with new partners and will look to closely embed into customer organisations to help drive meaningful and long-term change. We focus on defining the most common areas...

Hi Reader, Many people struggle with adapting to change. It brings strong emotions: fear, excitement and confusion to name but a few. People feel discomfort at the idea of a change, even if they dislike the current situation. Varying emotions are felt by all stakeholders of the change, both the originators and teams involved in the change as well as the recipients of the change who will be impacted in some way. A change represents the unknown." The above is a short excerpt from my upcoming...

Hi Reader, Credit card data in the UK shows that consumers are cutting back on spending on dining out in restaurants and takeaways to save for Christmas. Whilst the cost of living crisis has lost media attention, many households across the world continue to face financial challenges. Meanwhile, Tesco have announced that they have increased their turkey orders ahead of the Christmas shopping period. Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said: “I think people are determined to enjoy Christmas this year. We’re...

Hi Reader, Thank you so much for all of your support about my upcoming book. As you may have seen, I've shared the front cover on LinkedIn, and that Driving Retail Transformation can now be pre-ordered in good book shops. Amazingly, this has already resulted in pre-orders and driving the book up to #2 position in Amazon's Hot New Releases chart for retail books. Wow! I'm delighted to share more about the origins in the book in this week's podcast. And I'm giving the first official reading of...

Hi Reader, Phew - I've just submitted what should be the final draft for my upcoming book - Driving Retail Transformation: How to Navigate Disruption and Change. The book is designed to be suited to any particular change and across any particular category, pulling from my experiences of directly driving changes in diverse categories like grocery, technology, fashion, health and beauty, and department stores, as well as for a whole range of different topics. It's really focused on the "why"...