IADS Exclusive: The latest edition of the IADS 100: dynamics in the department store world from 2019 to 2021
Retailers do not need to be reminded that disruption in the space has been numerous with up-and-coming tech (Web3 and AI), figuring out the “new normal” following a global pandemic, a war in Europe, as well as inflation. These are only a few of the things that have impacted retail businesses between 2020 and 2022.
The role of the IADS as an expert platform dedicated to the department store world is to be able to step away from the immediacy and the constant stream of news and be able to analyse the situation based on actual and reliable numbers.
This is the reason why the IADS launched the first edition of its exclusive Department Store global observatory, the IADS 100, in May 2021. This list, capturing data from a number of department store companies around the world, is intended to track the changes in the retail format and see how players in various markets are able to adapt to challenges and change. It is exclusively based on first-party information that the IADS sources itself.
In the latest rendition of the IADS 100 monitor gathering 2021 fiscal year figures, it has been clear that compiling comparable information across markets has proven to be more and more difficult. Many retailers are forecasting against ‘normal’ times and looking to beat 2019 figures rather than 2020 results. This is fair as department stores were forced to operate in limited ways or not at all for long periods of time, therefore typical KPIs from 2020 are no longer reliable when moving the business back to ‘usual’ times./nbsp]
What is hard about referring to 2019 figures rather than 2020 data is that there might not be a ‘business as usual’ reference to compare to anymore. It seems as if retailers are having to constantly adapt, therefore year over year comparisons need to be deeply analysed to be fully understood.
This report will attempt to understand some of these major changes across global retail markets. In order to make comparisons year over year, all exchange rates to Euros come from March 22, 2021, which was the date chosen during the initial IADS 100 release.
IADS provides its members with a weekly in-depth analysis on retail-oriented topics. This is an example of the themes the Association regularly addresses, and the topic of an article from the IADS members-only newsletter date 29 March 2023.
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