Selfridges’ new CEO, André Maeder, has his work cut out for him. The company has managed to survive the gruelling pandemic years – largely by cutting jobs and moving online – a tough cost-of-living crisis and an acquisition in 2022. But seasoned retailer Maeder, who was officially announced two weeks ago and starts in November , has to grapple with a different kind of challenge: structural change.
The decline of department stores is not new. Since the advent of online stores, customers have had less of a need for a big marketplace where they can buy a range of brands. But a cocktail of pressures has upped the ante recently: high costs and low spending have hurt those just about managing, and there is an increasing trend of brands who want to go directly to the consumer themselves rather than use a department store as a middle man.
Fenwick, an iconic store, closed earlier this year, and John Lewis has just announced a deep restructuring plan. House of Fraser cut nearly half its stores last year. “Why would a customer go to a department store when they can also go to the stores of a more specialist furniture homeware provider or clothing brand or electrical retailer?” Tim Black, associate director at Frontier Economics, asked.
The answer lies in quality of service and a distinctive offering. You have to become “the place that continues to be successful at winning the customers, at getting brands committing to you rather than being one of the ones that falls by the.