"Quote...unquote"

This week’s choice quotes from the retail technology world…

“People understand cash and can easily manage it, as it has boundaries. When you look at the history of how humans have paid for things over time, nothing has ever died out – from bartering to all new forms of digital currency. The use of cash is reducing but we see it as moving from a currency of convenience to insurance.” Colin Close, UK Managing Director at Elavon

‘Small point in Lush story: the company registered in UK and pay tax in UK contributing to police budget, in marked contrast to the newspapers attacking Lush who are registered offshore and pay f**k all tax and thus f**k all to police budget’. The comedian, Mark Thomas, tweets his support of Lush over its controversial SpyCops campaign

“BHS.com never really grabbed consumer’s awareness – and perhaps the BHS name is just too tarnished in the UK. Just the same happened to Woolworths here. After its collapse in 2009 a new website site promised to restore the wonder of Woolies online, but that too couldn’t stand alone, and its owners eventually merged it with Very. Former High Street brands' moves to online-only sales don’t seem to have a great success rate.” ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks

“UK food and grocery market growth is increasingly being driven by recent entrants to the channel and more delivery options. But we’re seeing more ambition from the Big Four as well, making ordering easier, improving picking, new capacity and faster deliveries. Analytics are also being utilised more effectively to target customers with more personalised content. Rising customer service expectations are encouraging the development of more rapid delivery services and other technological responses such as unattended delivery solutions.” Simon Wainwright, Director of Insight at IGD

“When you look out five, 10, 20 years from now, time will tell. But we’re confident that we’ll look back at it and say, “Yes, that was a big bet. It was a bold bet.” Timing might have been earlier than we had wanted it to be otherwise. But we’re glad we took it. We’re not running this thing for one year.” Walmart President Douglas McMillon defends its acquisition of Flipkart

“AO World still has a long way to go before convincing investors that it can become the Amazon of electrical appliances.” Fiona Cincotta, Senior Market Analyst, City Index 

“We think coins like ETH and IOST are a great way to engage with younger generations, and that the cryptocurrency ecosystem is a loyal and passionate market that isn’t being catered to. We are more than willing to fill that niche and believe it won’t be a niche for long.” Sa Wang, Founder, Pokee

“The retail industry is undergoing fundamental change and House of Fraser urgently needs to adapt to this fast-changing landscape in order to give it a future and allow it to thrive. Our legacy store estate has created an unsustainable cost base, which without restructuring, presents an existential threat to the business. So, whilst closing stores is a very difficult decision, especially given the length of relationship House of Fraser has with all its locations, there should be no doubt that it is absolutely necessary if we are to continue to trade and be competitive.” Frank Slevin, House of Fraser

"This is devastating news as these House of Fraser stores play an important part not just for the employees but also for the towns and cities that this will effect. In many cases these stores have been a vital part of life in these High Streets for decades and will not be replaced.” Catherine Shuttleworth, CEO, Savvy

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