Podcast
IADS Retail Park
Hosted by International Association of Department Stores - IADS · EN
🦖 Welcome to IADS Retail Park—where retail giants evolve or go extinct. Department stores get dismissed as dinosaurs all the time. But the best ones aren't fossils, they're transforming faster than most people realise. The IADS Retail Park delivers exclusive insights, transformation strategies, and expert analysis from the International Association of Department Stores. Built for executives and strategists who need actionable takeaways without the fluff.
Because let's be honest: in retail today, you're either adapting or you're already behind.
iads.substack.com
iads.substack.com
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The $10 trillion management problem
2d ago00:11:52Tap to summarizeIn this episode of IADS Retail Park 🎙️, Maya and Selvane, Managing Director of IADS, dissect this week's exclusive on the $10 trillion cost of manager disengagement. Drawing on Gallup's 2025 and 2026 State of the Global Workplace reports, Maya unpacks why $40 billion in enterprise AI investment is producing near-zero returns — and why both failures trace to the same layer. ➡️Click here to read the full Exclusive!For more insights and updates, follow us on LinkedIn at International Association of Department Stores - IADS, check out our Substack, visit our website at www.iads.org for additional resources, and learn more here! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
Two businesses, one store: Why omnichannel still hasn't solved its own architecture
1w ago00:11:03Tap to summarizeDepartment stores have run two business models simultaneously for over fifteen years. The result is a financial architecture that punishes omnichannel behaviour from the inside out. In this episode, Maya and Selvane, unpack why the bottleneck was never technological, what a 7–10% ship-from-store cancellation rate reveals about incentive structures, and how the omni-cluster model redefines what the store is actually for 🏛️.➡️Click here to dive even further into this week’s IADS Exclusive: The Next Chapter of Omnichannel This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
One door: How single-location department stores defy retail expansion logic
2w ago00:14:12Tap to summarizeWhat does it take to build a retail empire on a single address? Maya and Christine examine the strategic logic behind the world's most iconic single-location department stores. From Royal Navy ship timbers to circus performances after closing hours, this episode explores why singularity can be more defensible than scale—and what La Samaritaine's €750 million lesson reveals about when it fails.🔗 Click here to read the full exclusive!Stay connected: Follow us on LinkedIn · Read our latest on Substack · Explore www.iads.org This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
Can Printemps rewrite New York's luxury retail playbook from Wall Street?
4w ago00:08:58Tap to summarizeZara has closed 600+ stores since 2019—but total selling space has grown. Their new flagships look like "monobrand department stores" with local architecture, cafés, and luxury-grade design. What can department stores learn from this transformation? Maya and Selvane explore the "fewer, larger, better" strategy, the experience trap, and where Zara's limits create opportunity for department stores. 🏬🌍👉Click here to read the full exclusive. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
Why India's 45-day festival economy rewrites the retail playbook
4w ago00:09:51Tap to summarize45 days. 50% of annual grocery sales. 30-40% of automobile revenue. India’s festival season isn’t a shopping event — it’s an economic restructuring that happens every year. 🪔This week on IADS Retail Park 🎙️, Maya and Anchita examine how Amazon India turned a five-day sale into a month-long phenomenon where 85% of customers now come from non-metro cities. UPI accounts for 78% of digital payments. Luxury brands like Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin are launching Diwali collections. But the North-South gambling divide proves one truth: understanding micro-contexts isn’t optional when a billion consumers are watching.🎧 In this episode: Why 30-50% of annual sales compress into 45 days 📊. Amazon India scaled to 85% non-metro customers—what tier-2 cities revealed 🏙️. UPI hit 78% of digital payments and changed festival spending 💳. Galeries Lafayette enters Delhi and Mumbai, but one festival strategy won’t work for both 🎯. The Diwali gambling paradox: North vs. South, and what it means for campaigns 🎲.🔗 Click here to read the full India Festival Economy Exclusive by Anchita Ranka!For more insights and updates—connect with us on LinkedIn 💼, discover our exclusives on Substack 📰, and explore www.iads.org 🌐 for additional resources. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
Hopi's Transformation: From Loyalty to FinTech Ecosystem
4w ago00:12:04Tap to summarize25 billion Turkish lira in GMV. 18.3 million users. 550 business partners. Hopi isn’t a loyalty program anymore—it’s a B2B2C platform that does loyalty, MarTech, AdTech, and FinTech simultaneously. 💳This week on IADS Retail Park 🎙️, Maya and Selvane examine how Boyner Grup turned a department store loyalty program into a multi-merchant coalition serving 300+ partners, including its own competitors. 🎧 In this episode: * Find out why Boyner’s 1998 credit card experiment shaped Hopi’s FinTech DNA two decades later 🏦. * Learn how Paracik social sharing converted 1.6 friends per user into active shoppers 👥. The AdTech expansion that brought 100+ brands who never joined the loyalty program 📊. * What happened when Hopi approved 50%+ of credit applications versus banks’ 30-35% rate 💰. * Why serving your competitors is the only way platform economics work—and what department stores must unlearn 🔄.🔗 Click here to read the full Hopi Exclusive by Selvane Mohandas!For more insights and analysis—connect with us on LinkedIn 💼, discover our exclusives on Substack 📰, and explore www.iads.org 🌐 for additional resources. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
2020 to 2026: How DEI became retail's legal minefield
May 600:13:26Tap to summarizeTarget ended DEI in January 2025—four days after Trump's executive orders. By January 2026, when ICE agents detained US citizens in Minnesota stores, Target said nothing. That silence defines the bind facing US retailers in 2026. 🎯⚖️This week on IADS Retail Park 🎙️, Maya breaks down the trajectory from George Floyd commitments to Louisiana v. Callais—the late-April Supreme Court ruling that ended sixty years of voting protections. The frameworks that survived: leveling vs. lifting, targeted universalism, and the FAIR approach. The question isn't whether to pursue inclusion—it's how to do it when equity became prosecutable.🔗 Read the full exclusive!Stay connected: LinkedIn · Substack · www.iads.org This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
When the landlord is the brand: Inside Harrods' £2.25 billion model
Apr 2900:13:30Tap to summarize£24,000 per square metre. 18% operating margin. One building. One UK tax change cost it £80-90 million. 💷Maya and Selvane examine the landlord-brand model that made Harrods one of the world's most productive retailers—and the pressures now testing it. Seventy percent runs on concession economics. Freehold ownership eliminates rent risk. But customer concentration (4% = 28% of revenue), QIA dividend extraction, and Grade II* building constraints tell a different story🔗 Click here to read the full Harrods Exclusive by Selvane!Stay connected: LinkedIn · Substack · www.iads.org This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
Breuninger Stuttgart: Building community through services
Apr 2300:12:52Tap to summarize🎧 In this episode: Why Breuninger’s credit card captures 71% of turnover 💳 | How personal shoppers recruit at operas and cultural events 🎭 | The 3-minute runner system in footwear 👟 | Mrs. & Hugs private label success 🏷️ | Luxury buyback programs that keep spending in-house 🔄🔗 Click here to read the full Breuninger Stuttgart Exclusive by Christine Montard!For more retail insights and strategy—connect with us on LinkedIn 💼, discover our exclusives on Substack 📰, and explore www.iads.org 🌐 for additional resources. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →
24% vs. 71%: Department store beauty's discovery problem
Apr 2200:20:58Tap to summarizeThis week on IADS Retail Park 🎙️, Maya and Christine examine what department stores are actually building with these renovations — from Nordstrom‘s 1,670 sqm Beauty Bar to Macy’s 5,000 sqm commitment to Galeries Lafayette‘s three-floor strategy. The brand counter model is dissolving. Whether the replacement can compete with Sephora's 20-year head start is the question billions can’t yet answer.🔗 Click here to read the full Beauty Exclusive by Christine Montard!Stay connected: Follow us on LinkedIn · Read our latest on Substack · Explore www.iads.org This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit iads.substack.com/subscribe
Transcribe →