Be top of the tree with luxury

Independents must focus and edit the brands they stock, not over-clutter their outlets and attempt to create a 'shopping experience' to succeed.

This was the advice from Mary Portas, or Mary Queen of Shops of BBC fame, who recently addressed 100 UK independents at Luxottica's Elite Client seminar in Italy.

Portas emphasised the need to maximise window space and create an exciting, impactful display (News, October 5) avoiding product overload.

Retailers of the future will be purveyors of lifestyle, rather than simply products. Consumers of today have more channels and opportunities to purchase goods. At the value end, supermarkets selling fashion, for example jeans, had preceded the successful Primark concept, a type of shopping that was not about service or quality, but 'Cheap, cheap fashion'.