Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan - giving you retail insights, retail trends updates and best practices for any retailer, from Shopify stores to bricks and mortar units.
I'm Catherine Erdly, veteran retail expert and consultant and also founder of The Resilient Retail Club.
This is the podcast for anyone wanting to start, grow, or scale a profitable small medium or large product retail business. Aimed at independent retailers, e-commerce brands, indie sellers, online shops, independent boutiques, shopkeepers, brands and makers.
I'm dedicated to breaking down the concepts and tools I’ve gathered from twenty years in the retail industry in the UK and USA and showing you how you can use them in your small business.
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Données mises à jour le 06/11/2026
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This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
"The high street is dead" gets said so often that most of us have stopped questioning it. If you run a shop, hearing it week after week wears you down. It makes it sound as though you're fighting the tide, however good your shop is. But retail being hard and the high street being dead are two very different statements, and I wanted to find out which one was actually true.
Since January I've been working my way through an A to Z of UK high streets for my Instagram, from Inverness to Fowey, and from Holywood in County Down to Brighton's North Laine. I've walked down streets so busy it felt like a football crowd had just been let out, and I've turned up on a Sunday to find a lot of the independents shut. In this episode I share the 10 things I've taken away so far, halfway through the alphabet: what makes one high street feel vibrant and another feel flat, why some places get three hours of your time and others get 20 minutes, and why a street can look like it's thriving to a visitor while the people running its shops are telling a very different story.
By the end, you'll know what the busiest high streets I visited have in common, what independent shops bring to a town that nobody else can, and how to look at your own high street (and your own shop) the way a visitor does. If you've ever wondered whether your high street has a future, or what would make people want to keep coming back to it, this one's for you.
Chapters
00:00 Is the high street really dead?
03:25 Independents, curation and a town's personality
07:32 Useful, busy and worth the trip
12:25 Opening hours, hidden pressures and what comes next
The Resilient Retail Game Plan shares retail industry trends, insights, and best practices for the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts. New episodes every Thursday morning.
Mentioned in this episode:
Capify
Independent Retailers: How Will 2026 Budget Affect You
Épisode 326
jeudi 29 octobre 2026 • Durée 13:06
Around half of high street shops could soon pay no business rates at all. So why do so many of the retailers I speak to still feel let down by this Budget?
Hi, I'm retail strategist and founder of Resilient Retail Club, Catherine Erdly.
On Wednesday 28 October, John Healey delivered his first Budget as Chancellor, and for retailers there was a lot riding on it. Rises in employer National Insurance and the National Living Wage have added an estimated £6.5 billion to retail employment costs in the last couple of years. Plenty of independent shops are busy, loved by their customers and working flat out, and still struggling to keep enough cash in the business. Going in, most people I spoke to had high hopes and fairly low expectations.
In this episode I go through what was actually announced and who it really helps: the business rates changes for shops in England, the new National Living Wage from April 2027, the VAT change for anyone selling through online marketplaces, and the help with household energy bills. But the headlines don't tell the whole story. A higher threshold doesn't help every shop, a "freeze" doesn't always mean your bill stays the same, and some of the support won't arrive until well after Christmas. You'll also hear how one Marlow boutique owner felt when the news landed.
By the end, you'll know which changes are likely to affect your business, what you need to build into next year's forecast, and where to put your energy with the biggest sales months of the year right ahead of us. If you've been wondering whether this Budget is good news or bad news for your shop, press play.
Chapters
00:00 Why so much was riding on this Budget
04:04 Better timing, and the business rates changes
06:56 Wages, marketplace VAT and help with energy bills
09:51 A shop owner's reaction, and my advice for Christmas
Useful links
Find your shop's rateable value (GOV.UK):
Retail Christmas Window Displays: The 3-Colour Rule That Sells
Épisode 325
jeudi 22 octobre 2026 • Durée 15:52
Your shop window is your hardest-working unpaid employee. This Christmas, is it pulling its weight?
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
If you're an independent retailer, you're probably about to put up your Christmas window display, or you've already planned it. But a pretty window isn't the same as one that sells. For most independents, the quickest Christmas win isn't finding more customers. It's each customer spending a little more. So what does a window have to do to make that happen? And what's it doing for you at 10 o'clock at night, when the door is locked and it's been dark for hours?
To find out, I brought back visual merchandiser Sarah Manning. Sarah has worked in visual merchandising for more than 20 years, starting at Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, and she has run her own consultancy since 2006. When we spoke she was in the middle of planning Christmas schemes for her own clients, so this is what she's actually doing this season, from a fashion client's window to a food retailer whose shelves are every colour going.
By the end of this episode you'll know how to build one Christmas look that runs from your window to your shelves and your website, and why three colours is the limit. You'll know how to use your window and the area just inside your door to sell a gift rather than a product, so each customer spends more. And you'll know when to put your window in, when to refresh it, and how to keep it selling after you've locked up.
Chapters
00:00 Why your Christmas window matters
02:44 One theme, three colours, window to website
Retail Stores: Do Online Brands Really Need Bricks and Mortar?
Épisode 324
jeudi 15 octobre 2026 • Durée 16:56
It's so easy to shop online. So why would anyone spend their precious time coming to see you in a shop?
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
Last week I asked whether bricks-and-mortar shops need a website. This week I'm turning the question around: do online brands need a physical store? Your customer doesn't think in channels. She finds you on Instagram, pops in on a Saturday, orders another colour on her phone that evening and brings something back the following week. Shopify's research shows 41% of UK shoppers plan to split their shopping evenly between online and in-store, which leaves every online brand with the same awkward question. If the website always wins on convenience, what is a shop actually for? And once you've added up the rent, rates, staff, fit-out and stock, can it ever pay its way?
To find out, I spoke to Dessislava Bell, who co-founded the womenswear brand Saint + Sofia with her husband Malcolm. They sold online only for almost five years and reached more than 800,000 customers around the world before opening their first shop on Monmouth Street in Covent Garden in November 2024. Dessi is the spreadsheet lover in their partnership, so I wanted to know exactly how she judges whether the shop is working. You'll also hear from Sally Hughes Daniels, CEO of the activewear brand TALA, which opened its first shop on Carnaby Street last year, and from Emilie Benoit-Vernay, Shopify's Director of Revenue for EMEA.
By the end of this episode you'll know the jobs a shop can do for an online brand beyond the takings, how to choose the one you want yours to do, and how to find out whether your customers want to meet you before you sign a lease. You'll also hear the one thing that changed how Dessi sees physical retail. And if you already run a shop, stay with me, because what happens when someone walks through Saint + Sofia's door is something you could copy tomorrow.
Retail (ecommerce) Websites: Do Bricks-and-Mortar Stores Really Need One?
Épisode 323
jeudi 8 octobre 2026 • Durée 20:36
Everyone says your shop needs a website. So why do nearly two-thirds of independent retailers make less than 10% of their revenue online?
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
This is part one of a two-part series, and it takes on one of the least questioned bits of received wisdom in retail: you need a website, full stop, end of sentence. I work with a lot of bricks-and-mortar shops, and I've seen first-hand the blood, sweat and tears that go into keeping a website going alongside a shop floor. The photography, the listings, the stock updates, the SEO, the emails, the orders and the returns, all squeezed in around constant interruptions, usually by a team of three people or fewer.
In this episode I dig into the Voices of Retail 2026 research from Faire and Spring & Autumn Fair, including the number I haven't been able to stop thinking about: 64% of independent retailers make less than 10% of their revenue online, and yet more than half say growing online is one of their top priorities for the next 12 months. Elyse McAvoy from Faire also drops in with a reminder of why your shop matters more than ever: nine in ten shoppers say AI has made them more likely to want to see products in real life. I talk about why having a website and making money from a website are two completely different achievements, the ranking problem that quietly works against anyone who sells other people's brands, and why a shop can look brilliant online from the outside while the numbers underneath tell a very different story.
By the end you'll know how to work out what job your website should really be doing for your shop, the three things I've seen make the biggest difference for independent retailers, and the single biggest missed opportunity I see most shops under-using, one that doesn't rely on winning strangers from the other side of the country. If you've ever felt guilty that your website isn't pulling its weight, or you're wondering whether it's worth the hours at all, this one's for you.
The Shopping Forecast Podcast - 'Special Listen In' Episode
dimanche 4 octobre 2026 • Durée 06:01
I just wanted to let you have a quick listen to my other podcast. Fashion brand consultant Elizabeth Stiles (host of The Fashion Brand Clinic) and I teamed up to launch "The Shopping Forecast" which is a podcast that proves shopping is about so much more than what’s in your basket.
Each episode we bring the receipts on current consumer trends and the cultural shifts shaping the way we shop, unpacking the psychology behind our purchases and the brands redefining consumer culture.
Whether you love spotting trends before they hit the mainstream or are simply fascinated by why people buy what they buy, The Shopping Forecast is your weekly guide to the sociology of shopping.
Retail Opening Hours: How 8 Independent Shops Decide When to Open
Épisode 322
jeudi 1 octobre 2026 • Durée 18:07
What are the right opening hours for your shop, and what should you actually be using to make that decision?
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
Earlier this year I visited Jedburgh and Kelso in the Scottish Borders for my A to Z of independent retail, and I made a very London-centric mistake. I went on a Sunday. The cafes were open, the chains were open, and between the two towns I found exactly one independent shop open. When I shared it on Instagram, it started one of the liveliest conversations I've had all year. Should independent shops open on Sundays? Is it worth opening if the footfall isn't there? Do customers now expect you to be open seven days a week?
So rather than tell you what I think, I asked eight independent shopkeepers how they actually decide their opening hours, and their answers couldn't be more different. One owner cut her week from six days to four and saw her sales go up. Another went to seven days a week and has just moved into bigger premises. One closes on Mondays because the whole village does. Another stays open on the afternoon her neighbours shut. You'll hear all of them in their own words, from Peckham to Pembrokeshire and Bantry to Lyme Regis.
By the end of the episode you'll know what to weigh up before you change your hours, why one quiet Tuesday tells you far less than you think, and the one thing all eight shopkeepers agreed on, whatever days they choose to open. If you've ever stood in an empty shop wondering whether it was worth unlocking the door today, or you're deciding what to do over Christmas, this one's for you.
Chapters
00:00 Why I found just one independent shop open on a Sunday
Retail Christmas Forecast: What the Summer Numbers Really Tell Us
Épisode 321
jeudi 24 septembre 2026 • Durée 17:35
So how was the summer for retail in general, and more importantly, what does that tell us about what's ahead for Christmas?
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
Depending on what you read this summer, retail either collapsed or quietly got on with it. You'll have seen headlines about the retail apocalypse sitting next to reports of rising consumer spending, and the frustrating thing is that a lot of those contradictory things can be true at the same time.
So in this episode I go through what the actual numbers say. Retail sales volumes were up. Footfall was down in six of the first seven months of the year. Online hit its highest share of spending since April 2021. Clothing had its strongest month since September 2025, while furniture and computing were left on the shelf. Consumer confidence climbed to a 21-month high, and June's early promotions appear to have pulled demand forward out of July in exactly the way Black Friday pulls it forward out of December.
Put together, that gives us a picture of a customer who hasn't stopped spending at all. They've become selective, occasion-led and comfortable flipping between your website and your shop door depending on the weather and their mood. Which is genuinely encouraging going into Christmas, because Christmas is planned, occasion-led spending. It just means you can't assume that customers spending in general translates into customers spending with you.
I finish with the four things I'd want you to do before November: don't plan for disaster, get your entry and mid price points right, stop relying on footfall alone, and keep enough flexibility in your stock budget to react to what's actually selling.
Retail Christmas Stock Planning: How Much Should You Actually Buy?
Épisode 320
jeudi 17 septembre 2026 • Durée 18:15
Before you place one more Christmas order, stop and ask a different question. Not "how much money have I got left to spend?" but "is my stock actually ready for Christmas, and where are the genuine gaps?"
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
I said this was going to be a four-part Get Set for Christmas series, but there's one thing I didn't dig into properly, and it's the thing that quietly decides whether your Christmas is profitable or just busy: the stock itself. The trade shows are done, the catalogues keep landing, the reps keep calling, and every new range looks like the one that's going to make the difference. The temptation to keep buying is enormous, and it's easy to justify because Christmas matters so much.
In this episode I walk you through how to work out whether your stock is ready, and I mean properly ready, by category, not just a list of bestsellers. I show you the check that reveals when something is badly out of line (the one where jewellery is 40% of your sales and 10% of your stock), the question almost everyone forgets to ask about what they want left on 31 December, and the calculation the Stock Doctors run for every client that turns a vague budget into a specific gap to fill. I run the numbers on a worked example so you can see exactly how £6,000 on the shelf, £2,000 on order and a £10,000 sales expectation become a real buying budget.
By the end you'll know how to tell a genuine gap from a gorgeous distraction, how to buy strategically rather than opportunistically, and how to come out of January with cash in the bank instead of a stockroom full of problems. If you've ever bought something because you loved it rather than because your business needed it, this one's for you.
Retail Christmas Promotions: 7 Ways to Drive Sales Without Discounting Everything
Épisode 319
jeudi 10 septembre 2026 • Durée 18:58
If your Christmas promotional strategy is "20% off everything", then you probably haven't got a Christmas promotional strategy.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Capify - business funding made simple. Find out more at capify.com
This is the final episode in my four-part Get Set for Christmas series, and it tackles the bit most independent retailers leave until a panicked evening in November: the promotions. The fourth quarter has become the noisiest, most discount-driven time of the year, and when every other brand starts shouting about money off, it's very easy to react, slash prices and find yourself at the end of December with a great sales figure and no profit to show for it.
In this episode I walk you through the seven types of promotion available to you, from the most premium to the most distressed, and explain why I think of them as a continuum. Some barely move sales at all but do wonders for your relationship with your customers. Some absolutely will drive sales, but every time you use them they work a little less well and your brand looks a little more worried. I also share the one question you should ask before you run any discount, the mistake I see big high street names making over and over again, and my honest view on whether you need to take part in Black Friday at all.
By the end you'll be able to build a week-by-week promotional calendar for the whole of Q4 that hits your sales goals, delights your customers, looks after your VIPs and leaves your margin intact, so that when the busy months arrive you can focus on selling rather than working out what to say next.
Chapters
00:00 If your strategy is "20% off everything"
01:31 What a promotion really is, and who discounts are actually for
The Resilient Retail Game Plan shares retail industry trends, insights, and best practices for the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts. New episodes every Thursday morning.
Chapters
00:00 Why would anyone visit an online brand's shop?
03:06 What a shop can do that a website can't
07:26 Service, community and the social side of shopping
The Resilient Retail Game Plan shares retail industry trends, insights, and best practices for the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts. New episodes every Thursday morning.
Mentioned in this episode:
Capify
Next week I flip the question: does an e-commerce brand need a bricks-and-mortar presence?
Chapters
00:00 Do bricks-and-mortar stores really need a website?
02:09 The "shop without walls" promise vs the 64% reality
06:57 Why running a website is so hard for independent retailers
09:46 Shop and site as one business: what actually works
The Resilient Retail Game Plan shares retail industry trends, insights, and best practices for the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts. New episodes every Thursday morning.
Mentioned in this episode:
Capify
01:51 Consistency, the rhythm of your town and trial and error
06:24 Who covers the hours, and what the numbers actually say
The Resilient Retail Game Plan shares retail industry trends, insights, and best practices for the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts. New episodes every Thursday morning.
Mentioned in this episode:
Capify
Chapters
00:00 Stop before you buy anything else for Christmas
01:31 Your buying budget isn't a pot of money
02:20 Look at last Christmas by category, not by bestseller
04:45 Sales mix vs stock mix: the 40% / 10% test
06:30 Set a realistic Christmas sales target
07:50 What do you want left on 31 December?
09:55 The balance-back calculation (the £5,000 example)
12:36 The 80/20 rule, and what to do if you have no data
15:04 Nine questions to ask before your next order
The Resilient Retail Game Plan shares retail industry trends, insights, and best practices for the retailer who's serious about building something that lasts. New episodes every Thursday morning.
Mentioned in this episode:
Capify
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