Is uk e-commerce market growing? John Lewis and Brick and Mortar stores  The state of retail and e-commerce in the UK in 2024 Hey folks, Michael from Amazing FBA. I've just been shopping in my new city, Welwyn Garden City at John Lewis, which used to be the company store here until the 1960s. And even now it's pretty dominant. And I want to talk about my new set of shoes and reflect on the state of retail and e-commerce. As part of my wanderings around Europe, London and the UK, I often like to reflect on retail experiences. I don't personally like shopping by the way. I prefer e-commerce because I can just buy whatever I want and get out. But when I go shoot shopping because of very, very awkward feet, I need to interact with a physical shop. Now, John Lewis. Let's talk about John Lewis for a second. John Lewis is a brand, it's a retail brand rather than a brand that makes things, although they do have their own lines, private label lines of things. We also have an interesting secondhand relationship with a couple of my clients in the 10k collective, both former and current have in the past sold a lot of stuff to John Lewis. And they said you think Amazon is bad and capricious. You should try and talk into John Lewis buyers who will reject you or, you know, push you down on the price by two pence or two cents per unit or something ridiculous. John Lewis has a, business model that's very challenging. I think they're letting go of quite a percentage. Maybe it's 10 per cent of the staff when they come in the year, they shut down some stores, they shut down a flag chick store in Birmingham or Birmingham, England is the Americans call it. So that sounds like it's game over for John Lewis and it's a win for e-commerce but a couple of thoughts. In-person buying can make sense - especially for apparel  First of all, the buying experience, I have awkward feet, as I said, and therefore I can't buy shoes online and expect them to fit my awkward feet. I need to go and shop in person. So in-person shopping is not dead yet. And in fact, Thereby hangs a tale... Personalised and human shopping experience The second thing is the experience. I had a very pleasant person serving me and actually serving me, hanging around, looking patient, looking like he actually cared, instead of poking at his phone or just wandering off or giving me monosyllabic answers, which has been my experience of shopping in most places in Britain. And the guys seemed to know their business, and he actually practically helped me by going and fetching different sizes of pairs of shoes. Simple stuff, but in my experience, that's not to be taken for granted these days. So, the experience of somebody seeming to care about you, the experience of somebody, well, maybe he actually cares, maybe he's just polite enough to seem to care, but they've got quality staff. The John Lewis/Waitrose model - the staff owning part of the business John Lewis and Waitrose, which is part of one group, actually have very, very good quality staff. Now, the interesting thing about them, that's not necessarily the lesson to learn, but it's a possible lesson, is that they actually, The staff are, of course, the owners. It's a cooperative, very unusual structure these days. The so-called Cooperative Bank in Britain is no longer a cooperative bank and is about to be bought by Barclays, I believe, so another bank anyway. So they're a rare thing, but what it does seem to mean is that when I go into a John Lewis or Waitrose,