N Brown: Online retailers will ‘kick on’ again in new year following cost of living lull
N Brown chief executive Steve Johnson said he expects online retailers to “kick on” again in the new year, following a lull period driven partly by customers returning to physical stores in order to shop around amid the cost of living crisis.
Speaking to Morning Wire, Johnson, who heads up the business behind popular online size inclusive clothing brands such as Simply Be and Jacamo, said that he noticed a “reset” in shopping attitudes post-pandemic.
“There does appear to be a bit of a reset into omni-channel businesses [stores which have both a physical and online presence] from pure play [retailers] this year,” he said.
Online shopping surged in popularity during the pandemic, as nationwide lockdowns limited trading in high street stores.
In January 2021, when the UK was still in the middle of various lockdowns, online sales accounted for 35.2 per cent of all retail in Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics.
However, as in-store businesses have resumed normal trade and consumers grapple with high inflation, the trend appears to be dying down slightly.
In May, online shopping fell by 3.3 per cent, but showed signs of rebounding in the middle of summer — rising by 4.1 per cent in July, according to government statistics.
Shoppers have also made a return to physical stores as it allows them to shop around for the best value deals during a period of economic uncertainty.
“This year, I think there’s a bit of a restatement [from physical shops] but I suspect the pure play businesses will start to kick on again from next year onwards,” Johnson said.
Since joining N Brown more than , the financial services pro has been implementing a transformation plan for the business — taking it from a brand once synonymous with catalogue order books to a heavyweight in the digital shopping space.
This included closing the brand’s 20 stores on the high street in 2018 and ramping up investment in its website and app.
“This business is a digital business and I believe that we can create something unique for the customers,” he said.
Despite reporting a pre-tax loss of £70m for the full year in June, Johnson remains confident about the company’s position.
During that term, the London-listed retailer had handed £49.5m to Allianz insurance to settle a long term dispute over its insurance products, which Johnson said played a factor in the weak figures.
“We are more optimistic about the future, but still a little bit cautious about the next six months,” Johnson said, noting that a cooling down in household costs would likely lead to an uptick in customer spend, and an easing of cost of living pressures felt by the business.
Meanwhile, under Johnson’s reign, N Brown’s debt pile has significantly reduced from £505m to £290m.
“Despite the pandemic and despite the cost of living crisis, we’ve turned the business around to give it the balance sheet to enable us to invest in the transformation,” he said.