Today in retail: Arket debut concludes week of new stores

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Online and digital commerce continue to transform retail, but faith in the future of the store is evident in abundance.

H&M’s Arket fascia made its global debut in London today, hot on the heels of stablemate Weekday’s touchdown in this country a week ago.

Yesterday House of Fraser opened its first new shop in almost a decade, and Debenhams unveiled its first branch under chief executive Sergio Bucher.

And that’s all on top of Amazon’s preparations to make the most of offline as well as online opportunity as its acquisition of Whole Foods completes next week. My colleague Grace Bowden looks at what it means here.

Who knows just what the store of the future will look like, whether we’re talking supermarkets or department stores.

The likelihood is that there will be many changes still to come, on top of all the new ideas being tried out.

But what all the openings show is that whether it’s Amazon, the poster-boy of contemporary retail prowess, or Debenhams, founded back in the 18th century, all are united in the conviction that bricks-and-mortar has a central part to play in 21st century retail.

All the best for a successful weekend’s trading – whether it’s through a physical shop, a website or, increasingly, both.

Quote of the day

“This is just the beginning – we will make Amazon Prime the customer rewards programme at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together. There is significant work and opportunity ahead, and we’re thrilled to get started.”

– Amazon Worldwide consumer chief executive Jeff Wilke