Retail Compass Winter edition 2020

Welcome to the Winter 2020 edition of Retail Compass – our guide to key upcoming legal and policy changes affecting Retail and our thoughts on the need-to-know issues.

2020 is set to be another fascinating year for retail. Despite the negative headlines you will read in the newspapers, good retailers are still flourishing and we expect to see those who embrace the new trends in the industry to continue to grab market share. Expect to see more personalisation of products and experiences, the digital and physical worlds combining more effectively, the increasing importance of supply chains in delivering what the customer wants and sustainability moving to the top of all retailers’ agendas.

As for previous editions of Retail Compass, we have captured the key upcoming developments for the first part of the year in the horizon-scanning pieces (see pages 5 to 11). April 2020 is set to be a busy month with the Digital Services Tax, extension of IR35 and aspects of the Good Work Plan (to name a few) coming in that month. We’ve also included some shorter pieces which focus on other interesting things going on that we think will impact those in Retail, this includes a look at the Criminal Finances Act two years on.

We continue to include key statistics and links to our legislation tracker and list all of the UK Government consultations and enquiries relevant to Retail. We’ve also included some shorter pieces which focus on other interesting things going on that we think will impact those in Retail, this includes the impact of cyber breaches within the retail industry, counterfeiting of luxury goods, and a look at the Criminal Finances Act two years on.

We hope this edition is helpful for your business. We would love to hear any feedback or comments so please feel free to contact us.