Sarah Johnson

Black women make up 4.2% of the UK's female population. But we account for 10% of total haircare spending. (According to The TreasureTress Trend Report) We're spending 2.5x more than our demographic size Not by choice, but by necessity. Here is my call to action: 1. To Brands: Stop treating Black hair care as "niche" when we're clearly a major market force. - We need more products on mainstream shelves - Fair pricing structures - Investment in R&D for textured hair - Black women in leadership making product decisions 2. To Retailers: Expand your offerings. The data proves the demand exists. If you're not stocking products for Black hair, you're leaving money and customers on the table. 3. To Investors: Black hair care is not a trend; it's a proven, loyal, growing market. Fund the founders who understand this community from lived experience. 4. To My Community: Our spending power is £10 billion+ in the UK alone. Let's be intentional about where we invest it. Support brands that: Price fairly → Hire us → Listen to us → Show up consistently (not just during Black History Month) We're not asking for favors. We're demanding equity in an industry we're literally keeping alive. The numbers don't lie. Now let's make sure our voices are heard just as clearly.

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I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it; your suppliers are not here to mitigate your mistakes (made either by yourself or your government). I came across a Tik Tok yesterday, where a small brand had made some cotton sets, but after approving a sample, requested that the fabric be made heavier. The supplier asked if they wanted to see another sample, the brand said no, straight to production but with a heavier fabric. How well do you think that turned out! To be fair to the brand, they admitted on Tik Tok that it was their mistake. But so many comments came back saying they should ask for their money back from the supplier because the supplier hadn’t told them of all the problems that were likely to go wrong. It’s not your supplier’s job to save you from bad decisions! This is why you should hire product people. Hiring a PD or fabric tech with enough experience to tell you what could go wrong really doesn’t cost that much. You can have an hours conversation with an expert for less than £200! But people are still expecting suppliers to save them, for free. And we see the same thing with brands coming out of the US now. Jasmin Malik Chua reported that brands are putting a hold on orders, and in some cases even asking their suppliers to take some of the financial hit. The absolute piss take being that some of the owners of said brands supported a Trump Presidency in the first place! (That’s not to say I’m not devastated for the small and medium sized businesses who are facing their entire profits being wiped out over night. My advice would be to not import it, get a warehouse in the U.K. who can service customers, get it back on a ship asap, and use the fact you have until May until the De Minimise closure comes in). Whether you like it or not, it is not down to your supplier to mitigate either of these 2 examples. They have enough problems of their own. #Innovation #SupplyChain #Imports

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The Hidden Cost of Fashion’s Sizing Crisis. Here’s a stat that should concern every fashion retailer: 30% of online fashion purchases in the UK are returned, with poor fit being the primary reason. But the real story isn’t just about returns. It’s about the impossible situation facing British women shoppers: The same woman can be FIVE different sizes when trying on 10 items in one store. I’ve been analyzing customer reviews across 15+ major UK brands - from high street (M&S, Next, Zara) to premium (Reiss, Whistles, Phase Eight, Sosandar, Hobbs, Mint Velvet, LK Bennett) - and the complaints are remarkably consistent: • “Sizes are all over the place” • “A size 10 in one style, size 14 in another - same brand” • “Items shrink after first wash” • “Too tight in the thighs, too loose in the waist” • “A size 16 fits like a 14” or vice versa Worst offenders for inconsistency? Zara (customers report being 5 different sizes in 10 items), Phase Eight (sizing varies wildly by style), and Sosandar (runs large with unpredictable variations). The outliers doing it right? Boden gets praised for consistent fit, particularly in petite sizing. But they’re the exception, not the rule. The Cost Implications Are Staggering: For consumers: • Return shipping fees (now £1.99-£3.95 per return) • Buying multiple sizes to try at home • Time wasted on returns • Keeping ill-fitting clothes rather than facing return hassle For retailers: • Processing costs for returns • Lost sales from frustrated customers • Damaged brand loyalty • Environmental impact of reverse logistics The irony? Brands are now charging customers return fees to offset their own sizing inconsistencies. When a size 12 doesn’t mean the same thing within the same brand, let alone across the industry, we’re asking customers to subsidize our lack of standardization. It’s time the fashion industry acknowledged this isn’t just a “customer preference” issue - it’s a quality control crisis that’s costing everyone. What’s your experience been with sizing consistency? #RetailInnovation #FashionIndustry #CustomerExperience #Ecommerce #UKRetail #rey-house.com #tru-size.com Tom O'Connor Stephen Sumner Next Sourcing Limited

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Here are some interesting stories from the world of UK retail for Tuesday, 5 August: 👔 Profit at Hawes and Curtis has shrunk for a second consecutive year despite rising sales. The fashion brand has posted a pre-tax profit of £3.7m for 2024, new accounts filed with Companies House show. 👕 River Island was handed a bloody nose after landlords voted down its restructuring proposals last Friday, although the retailer is still confident of the High Court waving through the controversial measures. 🥃 Waitrose & Partners reported a noticeable sober summer in 2025, with sales of its low and no-alcohol drinks soaring. Sales of  low and no drinks were up 32% compared to the same time last year. 🍾 The Government is launching a deposit return scheme for drinks containers, set to begin in October 2027. Households will receive financial rewards for returning empty bottles and cans to designated collection points. 🍽️ A growing number of restaurants are responding to a cultural shift toward earlier dining by introducing early evening set menus. Changing work patterns and health-conscious lifestyles mean early dining is now more popular. 🏬 Asda is in talks for a sale and leaseback property deal on some 20 of its supermarkets, as part of a £400m deal to help fund its wider turnaround plans for the grocery business. 💷 Poundland has kicked off a large-scale clearance sale, offering hundreds of items from as little as 10p, ahead of ongoing restructuring under new owners Gordon Brothers. 👷🏼‍♂️ The summer job market for teenagers and students has sharply declined due to increased employers' National Insurance Contributions announced by Rachel Reeves. Approximately 84,000 hospitality jobs have vanished. 🏦 High street banks in Britain have lost £100bn in savings as customers shift to online banks and building societies, according to KPMG. Traditional banks' market share in deposits fell from 84% in 2019 to 80% in 2024. 👗 Asda has appointed ex-Sainsbury’s senior women’s fashion buyer Victoria Stead to lead its womenswear category at George. ✂️ Morrisons cut more than 3,600 jobs as it returned to profit for the first time since a private equity-backed takeover in 2021. 🇺🇸 British women’s and menswear brand Toast has expansion plans for its circular fashion initiatives in the US. #retail #retailnews #UKretail #economy #DailyRetailNews

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We've sat in trade meetings where net revenue meant three different things to three different directors. The meetings were a total waste of everyone's time. After working with £100m+ fashion brands, we know exactly why this happens and how to fix it. TL;DR - you need standardised definitions. Today's Commerce Thinking newsletter breaks down the real KPI definitions that successful brands use, like: Gross Revenue (not Shopify's inflated version) Net Revenue (your actual top-line performance) COGS (fully-loaded, not partial cost fields) GP1-GP4 (true margin tracking) Stock Metrics (units, value, cover) Returns (cash flow vs revenue recognition) Read and subscribe: https://lnkd.in/eZWr2NqZ

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You can sell loads and still not make money I learnt that fast at ASOS. My first role there? Running eight departments Four branded. Four own-buy. When we planned brands, it wasn’t just about the product or trend. As merchandisers, we also looked at the margin — how much profit we’d actually make. Some brands gave us more than others. But here’s the thing: Selling more of a lower-margin brand didn’t always mean more profit. Think of it like mixing paint 🎨 One pot yellow, one pot blue. Mix them and you get green. But how green it turns out? That depends on how much of each colour you’ve poured in. And if you throw in some white? It shifts again. Profit works the same way. If most of your sales are coming from lower-margin products, the final “colour” of your profit mix won’t be as strong — even if you’re selling loads. 👉 It’s not just about how much you sell 👉 It’s about the mix behind those sales A colourful range is great — but make sure your green is the right shade. 💬 When’s the last time you checked your margin mix?

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#London ecom did not disappoint... What can only be described as the UK's most influential event... eCom Collab Club® #London and talking all things ummm eCom? With ecom's version of Ant & Dec.... Adam Pearce - CRO for Shopify Brands & Rich Evans.... and Adam was actually wearing socks! 🚀 Caitlin Moss kept calm with a few hickups (out of everyone's control) and nobody gave a damn! My takeaways..."Routes to scaling in 2026"... and overall, I got the feeling that scale won’t come from shiny hacks, it’ll come from nailing fundamentals. Differentiate acquisition with real value in-hand offers, warm domains and omni-channel CRM, build resilience with organic and technical SEO, clean your data with a single KPI view, then make logistics your moat so you can scale across markets while keeping brand and CX front and centre. 🎤 Miriam J. – Intuit Mailchimp 🎤 Stefan Loncar – Loncom Consulting 🎤 Andrew Kemp – Bare Kind Socks | B Corp 🎤 Michael Bates – Herd 🎤 Cameron Reardon-Davies – Grenade For international expansion.... think global, act local. The US is huge but volatile, while the Middle East and Northern Europe are flying if you localise product, payments and delivery options; test from one hub before you split stock, keep a single KPI view with ruthless data hygiene, and hire true market insiders so messaging, CX, and ops actually fit the country you’re entering. Speakers were Fab here too!!!; 🎤 Karine Gazarian – Bigblue 🎤 Luke Plane – Fulfilled Talent 🎤 Ryan Murray – Mimi Holliday 🎤 George Bland – Airwallex All in all jam packed and full of ideas and meaningful takeaways. #growthandscaling #ecommerce #internationalexpansion #london #retail #Marketing

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I'm curious to talk about leather in fashion 🤔 I’m not anti-leather, but I recognise the challenges the industry is facing as population and consumption rates continue to grow, and as a society we're depleting and exploiting our resources faster than we can restore them. This might have been workable 100 years ago when the global population was around 2 billion people, but now, at over 8 billion people, as an industry, we've got to think differently. I own some beautiful leather handbags and jackets which I’ve worn for years. I love the patina they’ve developed over time - they were all investment pieces and have a story to tell. I still have my first “designer handbag,” which I bought when I got promoted to 'Buyer'. It felt like a big deal at the time. However, that didn’t stop me from buying numerous fakes during sourcing trips to the Far East (which I clearly didn’t need, but it was a thing when we went on a trip... IYKYK 😉). However, there's been a lot in the press in recent weeks: 👉 adidas has quietly ended the use of kangaroo leather in its products 👉 Australia has banned ALL wildlife-derived materials from Australian Fashion Week 👉 US brand Another Tomorrow has launched Mirum®, a plant-based leather made from natural rubber, plant oils, and waxes 👉 Stella McCartney recently showcased Hydefy, a fungi-based leather alternative 👉 Lab-Grown Leather Ltd revealed “T-Rex Leather” - a next-gen material pushing the boundaries of what's possible. They are using advanced tissue engineering to literally "grow" real leather to create luxury materials of the future, using the biology of the past. The list of bio-based, “vegan” and leather alternatives is expanding fast. Mushrooms, cactus, agricultural waste, pineapple leaves, banana crops, orange peel, apple pulp, grapes… the innovation is exciting, but also a little overwhelming. Why so much innovation? Lower environmental impact, and a move away from animal-derived materials, raising important conversations around cruelty, ethics, and transparency. But with all this momentum, it raises some important questions: ❓ Are brands really adopting these next-gen materials at scale? ❓ Do consumers understand what they’re buying? ❓ Is there enough demand to shift the market? ❓ Do these materials perform to the same standards as traditional leather? ❓ Is the pricing workable? ❓ Are they available in manufacturing hubs and supply chains to scale commercially? ❓ What chemicals or additives are used to match durability and aesthetics? ❓ What happens to the materials at the end of life? Are you working with any of these leather alternatives? What are the biggest opportunities, challenges, or barriers you’re seeing? I’d love to hear your perspective, I know a few of you who will be keen to add to this conversation 😉👇 #veganleather #leatheralternatives #leatherinfashion Image: Lydia, around 20 years ago, in the days when I thought it was 'OK' to buy a new handbag on every trip!

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The UK is drowning in old clothes, and the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) just dropped a plan to save us 🚨 That pile of clothes that isn’t worth selling but you don’t want to throw away? We're all guilty 😫 We want to do better than landfill, but right now, the recycling system makes it nearly impossible. The UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) just released its National Textile Recycling Infrastructure Plan to fix this by 2035. To deliver this infrastructure successfully, the following must be achieved: ↳ 🤖 Investing in automated sorting to handle millions of garments faster and more accurately than any human. ↳ Massive tech innovation in fibre-to-fibre recycling (making new fabric from old thread). ↳ Strong, new end markets. If no one buys the recycled material, the whole system collapses 📉 ↳ 💰 A mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system, forcing brands to fund the solution. Voluntary efforts aren't enough. This isn't a cost. It's an economic opportunity. By capturing that waste, we generate new revenue and dramatically cut our environmental impact. Would your wardrobe benefit from infrastructure like this? Find the full article linked in the comments 👇

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I spent time in the Northwest of England last week, stepping inside Zara’s new 32,000 sqft flagship at the Trafford Centre – billed as one of its most technologically advanced stores yet. On paper, the scale could feel overwhelming. In practice, Zara created a more intimate environment with a series of 600 sqft rooms, each curated around a different product focus: denim, casualwear, tailoring, or occasionwear. The result is a clear, digestible journey that reflects the breadth and agility of Zara’s product strategy. To me, it says something bigger about the state of UK retail. For decades, Britain prided itself on being a global leader in fashion retail. Today, however, the collapse of businesses like Arcadia, BHS, and, more recently, the decline of River Island, tells a different story: one of underinvestment and missed opportunities. By contrast, European giants like Zara continue to double down on physical retail, digital integration, and brand experience. The message is clear: in a world where stagnation quickly leads to irrelevance, Zara’s commitment to constant innovation, investment, and reinvention keeps it firmly ahead. Viva Zara.  Viva Trafford Centre.  Viva Industrial Heartlands. 

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