Adventure Awaits

Autumn/Winter stock has arrived in Primark stores across the UK and I am loving it! Anyone who is a regular reader knows I love a bargain so naturally I love Primark! I mean come on where else can you get a gazillion hair bobbles, a tonne of jewellery, and three new outfits for under £100!? 

The AW14/15 collection at the high street store is stunning and their campaign 'Adventure Awaits' is truly beautiful. I love the earthy pastel tones mixed with bright pop colours and the textures include everything from chunky knits to faux fur - everything you need to see out this season with style.

I'm particularly in love with the thigh high suede boots in grey, shown in the third picture, and the tri-colour faux fur jacket, shown in the fifth picture. I think they'd look amazing either styled down with black jeans and top for a day out christmas shopping, or dressed up with and LBD for a festive night out.

Stephen Springham, Senior Retail Analyst, Planet Retail, spoke about Primark's sales in the upcoming seasons, he said: “Weather woes are unlikely to have a major bearing on Primark’s trading figures when it reports its full-year trading figures today. While the Indian summer in September and October has already prompted peers such as Next, Supergroup and N Brown to warn on profits, Primark is likely to post annual sales and profit growth approaching 20%. 

The calendar is slightly in its favour (the FY reporting period runs only until mid-September) and current trading may well be softer, but the fact remains that Primark is a retailing powerhouse - especially in the UK, but increasingly internationally too.

“Primark basically succeeds not just by being cheap but also by being very fashionable. The fact that the product may lack durability is neither here nor there - its shoppers are after something fast and disposable. It’s all about volume, volume and volume and there’s little place for e-commerce in this model. But it means that the stores must be compelling (which Primark stores are) and have rapid stock-turn (which Primark does). 

The Primark model doesn’t necessarily need e-commerce - it relies on stores having mass destination appeal and shoppers not knowing what they are going to buy before they go in. But they will never, ever leave empty handed. And will be back again very soon to do the same again. Customers enjoying shopping, retail as a leisure pursuit - old guard, but highly effective nonetheless.