From Topshop’s surprise return to the High Street, to New Look’s launch of its first-ever loyalty programme, and Estée Lauder Companies’ partnership with Shopify to enhance customer experience and drive direct-to-consumer growth, what’s been making waves in retail this week?
Supermarkets warn business rates surtax would raise prices and hit customers
UK supermarket bosses have warned the Chancellor that further tax increases in the forthcoming Budget would put upward pressure on prices, “inevitably impacting” already squeezed British households.
The open letter, organised by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), was signed by nine of the UK’s largest supermarkets, including Morrisons’ CEO Rami Baitieh, Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts and Tesco’s Group CEO Ken Murphy.
New Look launches first-ever loyalty programme, Club New Look
New Look has launched its first-ever loyalty programme, Club New Look, designed to reward customers with exclusive benefits, personalised perks, and members-only discounts.
Club New Look members will also enjoy early access to sales, product launches, and promotional events, along with entry into members-only prize draws and competitions.
Retailers start to see early glimmers of Christmas shopping spike, says BRC-Opinium data
Consumer spending intentions for the next three months rose to +14 in October, up nine index points from September, as shoppers began planning for Christmas.
However, optimism around personal finances declined, with consumers’ outlook falling four index points to -11, the first time it has dipped into double digits since May 2025.
“With Christmas now around the corner, expectations of spending, particularly on retail goods, rose sharply,” said Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the BRC.
She added that concerns over the cost of Christmas and possible tax rises in the upcoming Budget are likely weighing on sentiment around personal finances.
The Estée Lauder Companies partners with Shopify to boost CX & drive DTC growth
The collaboration forms part of the group’s ‘Beauty Reimagined’ strategy, focused on reaching consumers in smarter, faster, and more personalised ways.
The partnership will create a new digital commerce foundation designed to boost consumer centricity, enable sustainable growth, and drive efficiency across its portfolio of prestige and luxury beauty brands.
Working with Shopify, Estée Lauder will develop modern, unified commerce experiences powered by data and emerging technology to improve speed-to-market and ensure consistent brand experiences across digital and freestanding stores.
“Through this partnership, we are poised to unlock new levels of consumer centricity and omnichannel shopping experiences,” said Stéphane de La Faverie, President and CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies.
Eco-friendly pureplay Gardening Naturally boosts fulfilment speed and triples revenue with Orderwise
Gardening Naturally, an eco-friendly online gardening business, has increased fulfilment speed and boosted revenues after deploying an ERP and warehouse management system (WMS) from Forterro’s Orderwise.
With around 70% of annual sales occurring between April and July, warehouse efficiency and logistics coordination are crucial to its operations. The retailer also manages a complex multi-channel model, spanning its own DTC sites alongside Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces, each with unique fulfilment requirements.
“Before, it could take three hours to pick and process 200 orders — we can now do that in just five minutes,” said Scott Brandreth, Managing Director at Gardening Naturally. “At our busiest, we’re dispatching up to 5,000 orders a day. Without Orderwise, there’s no way we could have scaled to meet that demand.”
Advanced delivery orchestration now ensures 99% of orders are automatically routed to the correct carriers, while real-time visibility across sales channels enables the team to hit same-day dispatch targets and maintain Amazon Prime KPIs.
Since deploying Orderwise, Gardening Naturally has achieved a 3,500% increase in fulfilment speed and tripled overall revenues.
Topshop returns to the high street with John Lewis pop-ups
Launching from 3 November, Topshop will be available in four stores across the country with pop-ups on the womenswear floor of John Lewis’ London Oxford Street, Bristol, Leeds, and Liverpool stores.
The initiative comes ahead of the full-scale launch of Topshop in 32 John Lewis stores, with Topman in six of the stores, which is scheduled for February 2026.
Michelle Wilson, Managing Director of Topshop, said, “We’ve seen an incredible response to Topshop’s return, and we know our customers are excited to shop the brand in person again. By taking our Winter and Party collections beyond London, the Topshop pop-ups bring our signature energy and style to locations across the UK, just in time for the festive season.”
Pinterest launches visual-first AI Assistant to transform online shopping and discovery
Pinterest says its Assistant solves the “I’ll know it when I see it” problem by providing proactive recommendations that fit a user’s style.
Built primarily on an AI visual language model, Pinterest Assistant uses real-time, conversational descriptors and first-party actions to deliver visual inspiration and shoppable products. It expands multimodal search, allowing context to seamlessly flow between images, voice and text. With voice-enabled conversation, searching on Pinterest becomes even more visual and closer to how people shop in real life.
“People, especially Gen Z, say that the magic of Pinterest is that it ‘just gets me’, whether that’s finding the perfect outfit or knowing your distinct style,” said Bill Ready, Chief Executive Officer at Pinterest. “With Pinterest Assistant, we’re supercharging that magic by leveraging AI to help our users discover and shop like they would with that person who knows them best.”
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