Many long-established retail formats around the world with a large “brick and mortar” presence, are under increasing pressure. New and exciting online pure play operators, fast fashion retail, suppliers going direct to customer and a multitude of retail specialists are all providing better service and range to an ever-demanding customer.

Often weighed-down by very high rental deals coupled with legacy systems and infrastructure, it is becoming ever harder for these retailers to allocate the investment required to refresh their stores whilst delivering a profitable business. The loss of customers to a multitude of alternative offerings, together with ever increasing demand by owners for quick turnaround and faster returns has put some traditional retailers in a “no-win” position.

Many stores whether single stores or chains have changed ownership structure, many have suffered from the lowest enterprise value in their history and some have under gone ‘Buy outs’ and Private equity turnarounds

The dilemma for these legacy retailers is will they survive and how will they transform themselves into the modern retail?

Some flagship stores around the world still remain destinations and still have a ‘Reason for being”. Selfridges, Burberry in London and American Girl in New York, to name a few of the success stories. The future may be less more dominant stores, the future may be extinction or maybe they morph into a modern retail environment?

The challenge:

Each team will select a store in their city which is in distress or suffering from the weights of competition and the on-line competitor offerings.

They will examine the current competitor set and financial pressures faced by the individual store or chain.

Once selected, they are given the job of transforming an initial pilot store to a robust future proof model.

All teams have similar constraints of demanding shareholders, limited capital and a large customer base who now have the power of the internet to target their range, price and promotional program.

They are tasked to develop a survival plan and strategy to not only halt the store or chain’s decline but to turn it into a “retail phoenix” that sees it emerging as highly relevant, exciting and sustainable in today’s retail world.

They will describe their new plan or concept for their selected retailer.

During the 2020 Congress they must demonstrate to the judges their space, pricing, promotional and range strategy. Showing how they would transform the brand and brands in the store to build a valued brand franchise.

Hong Kong Polytechnic won with their inspiring "Rebel Retail" project that was based on the iconic figure of Neil Amstrong.