Positives and negatives from the month of May for UK retail. Where we’ve seen positives (hopefully!) in trade deals with the US and the EU that should help ease complexity and cost pressures on the industry, cyber security divisions are on red alert after hackers infiltrated systems at M&S, Co-op, and, Harrods.

Read on for more interesting things to have occurred in retail and CPG this month, from more major M&A deals, to Paris Hilton’s new skin care brand.

May’s Interesting Things

• UK Trade Deals: The UK announced trade deals with the US and EU in May and, whilst details are mostly still few and far between, signs are positive with retail bosses believing this will help lower costs on one of the sources of food price inflation from recent years. Will we see these savings passed on to shoppers? Given current retailer price wars, possibly, though I’d far more hang my hat on food prices not rising as quickly, rather than dropping.
• Cyber Attacks on M&S, Co-op, and Harrods - The largest hack affecting UK retailers came to light this month. Systems were supposedly infiltrated in February, before sensitive data was reportedly stolen and ransomware disrupted their infrastructure. M&S said this is likely to cause disruption until July, and will hit profits in the region of £300m. The hackers (though identities are unconfirmed) are reported to be attacking US retailers next according to Google’s cyber security division.
• Big M&A: Church & Dwight have continued their acquisitions into new healthcare spaces, this time acquiring Touchland hand sanitizer. Launched in 2018, the brand made hand sanitizer products that looked good, got lucky with their timing for an urgent customer need, and now can benefit from the distribution and scale of expertise from Church & Dwight.
• Roblox Enables Creators to Sell Physical Products in Virtual Stores - partnering with Shopify, shoppers can now buy both physical and virtual products. AKA purchasing in-platform so you can now buy and wear clothes that match your avatar.
• Celebrity CPG: Paris Hilton announced her new skin care brand - absolutely on point with her brand from naming, packaging, to even product names. However, being unaware of Paris Hilton’s recent fame, has this launched 20 years too late?

We’re attending IIEX Europe, 2025

We’re attending IIEX in Amsterdam on 17th-18th June. If you’re attending, please let us know! Always at the forefront of innovation for the CPG insights space, Charlotte Kiddle and Jack Edwards will be attending from VST, so please come and say hi.

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The way shoppers make decisions hasn’t changed much. They still walk into a store, scan the shelf, and make snap judgments based on price, pack, familiarity, and whatever catches their eye. But what’s changed dramatically is how brands and retailers are learning from those decisions.

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To have a chat about anything above, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at nick@storetrials.com or hop on to www.storetrials.com

Be excellent to each other.

Nick Theodore

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