The British sports fashion retailer JD Sports has called for ‘flexibility in property leases’ to ensure survival and success in the new normal world.
Substantiating on the significance of the bricks-and-mortar stores, the sports retailer said that creating brand awareness among growing consumers is possible only through retail stores and also nothing can replace a customer’s liking to see, touch and pick a product – especially an apparel.
However, with the world now entering the ‘new normal’ era, where social distancing will be the new norm, shopping experience isn’t going to be same.
JD Sports feels, in such a scenario, running a physical store may require lot of flexibility in property leases. There will be more talk of ‘rental realism’ in the days to come – a term that JD Sports believes is key to the future of bricks-and-mortar.
Meanwhile, JD Sports also announced that its revenue for the year, which ended before lockdown, posted a revenue increase of 30 per cent to clock £6.1 billion.
However, the retailer also said that its results for this year till 30 January 2021 will be adversely affected due to the pandemic.
JD Sports, which has stores all over the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, is known for its sports apparels and accessories and is a subsidiary of the Pentland Group.
Business strategies and approaches have to be revisited to get better results and going forward, one wouldn’t be surprised to hear more of terms like ‘rental realism’ and ‘property leases’ as every fashion retailer is today struggling to survive.
