We’re used to hearing about stores opening at Liverpool One these days but news has emerged that a high-profile retailer at the giant mall is shutting down.

The Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazaar that’s been open since 2012 is to close with a Harvey Nichols spokesperson saying the company is focusing on “full category stores”. 

That’s a key part of its growth strategy under still-new Julia Goddard, a former Alexander McQueen exec, but is interesting given the growth and importance of the premium beauty sector. 

In fact, standalone beauty stores remain a key part of rival Harrods’ strategy via its H Beauty chain, while Boots has opened a beauty-only store, Sephora is expanding fast and other retailers like M&S and Next continue to see beauty as a key category.

But perhaps it’s the intensifying competition that’s the issue and in fact, Sephora is opening at Liverpool One this spring.

Harvey Nichols also said: “We have reviewed our store portfolio and mutually agreed with the landlord of our Beauty Bazaar location in Liverpool to surrender the lease as we focus on investment into full-category stores.

“Unfortunately, this means that our employees in the Liverpool store may be at risk of redundancy. We have entered into a consultation process and are doing everything we can to support those affected by the surrender.”

A Liverpool One spokesman said the store has “has made an important contribution to Liverpool One success since opening. We’re committed to bringing the best, in-demand brands to [the mall] and we have well-progressed plans to transform the space that will ensure Liverpool One continues to go from the strength-to-strength.”

The closure is expected in the middle of next month and will leave a noticeable gap in the mall given its large size (it covers 22,000 sq ft and three floors). But Liverpool One, which is now almost solely owned by landlord Landsec, should have no problem filling the space that was once a Habitat store. The centre is one of the UK’s supermalls and has announced a raft of openings in recent years showing that it’s one of the key destinations on retailer wishlists.

With Mother’s Day coming on 30 March, GlobalData is predicting a  total spend for the event of £2.4 billion, “as consumer participation rises”. That would mark a 5% rise year on year and is based on the data analyst’s regular monthly survey of 2,000 consumers.

With more consumers marking the day, GlobalData said “retailers have an opportunity to cater to the rising demand for premium gifts and experiences. Strategic marketing, along with tailored product offerings, will be key to capitalising on this trend ahead of the event”.

Its Mother’s Day Intentions Report 2025 says the proportion of UK consumers planning to purchase at least one item for Mother’s Day 2025 has risen to 56.4%, a 2.9ppt increase on 2024. And consumers plan to spend £17.43 more on their mums than last year, resulting in an average spend of £125.30. 

Despite a wider trend towards experiences rather than products, “gifting will be the most popular expense this year, with categories such as clothing, fine jewellery & watches and health & beauty among the most sought-after”.

In fact, GlobalData is talking about a “decreased interest in takeaways and dining out this year. 17.5% of Mother’s Day shoppers plan to have a special meal at home with mum, a 3.1ppt increase on 2024”.

But while that should benefit those selling the food and drink for consumers to dine-in in style, it should also leave more cash for those aforementioned categories such as fashion, beauty and jewellery.

GlobalData senior retail analyst Eleanor Simpson-Gould said: “Retailers should offer personalised gifting options, including customised clothing, bespoke jewellery pieces, and curated beauty gift sets. Providing unique and thoughtful gifts will appeal to the customers looking to make a special gesture on Mother’s Day. Additionally, retailers must enhance the shopping experience by offering gift-wrapping services and convenient delivery options to make the process seamless for shoppers.”

That’s particularly important given that the survey showed 62.5% of Gen Z consumers agreeing that “retailers do not do enough to provide gift inspiration.” This sentiment is far higher than that of their cohorts. Almost half of this age group plan to spend more on Mother’s Day this year.

Simpson-Gould added that: “Retailers must engage with Gen Z shoppers on key social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to promote affordable Mother’s Day gift ideas, offering exclusive discounts and engaging content to attract budget-conscious shoppers. Next-day delivery options will be a significant draw for this age group. Given that 63.8% of Gen Z shoppers agree they ‘tend to leave Mother’s Day shopping until the very last minute’ online retailers offering expedited delivery stand to benefit the most from the expenditure ahead of the event.”

A thriving bags business has been the focus for many fashion apparel and particularly footwear labels in recent years. But today, that business needs to do more than thrive, it needs to be one of the key drivers of company growth.

We’ve seen that happening at Kurt Geiger where the footwear brand that also sells bags is in some ways now a bags brand that also sells shoes!

At Dune London, meanwhile, that’s not the case yet, but the affordable, fashion-focused footwear brand’s bags business is strong, growing and is a key focus for the label.

We spoke to CEO Nigel Darwin about how Dune is ramping up its bags business as well as about how it’s faring in sports and its global plans.

FashionNetwork.com: You’re known as a footwear brand but as your campaigns and stores demonstrate, bags are clearly a growing category for you.

Nigel Darwin: The third big growth platform for us [apart from the UK and international businesses] is the category piece. We already have a big business in ladies’ footwear, men’s footwear, and then there’s bags. For a long time we’ve had a bags business, but we’ve always been a footwear brand with some bags. Where we are now is absolutely focusing on bags. It’s a category that works all year round, that works very powerfully for a brand from a storytelling perspective, so it’s not surprising that brands go in that direction.

FNW: What sort of work are you doing around growing that accessories business?

ND: Everything! We’ve looked at the assortment and we’ve really elevated it in terms of the materials were using, the design, we’re much more thoughtful, I believe, about styles and style families. We used to have a little bit more of an item focus with too many different bags. We’re much more coherent now about how the brand works across both footwear and bags [via] a select number of a very curated group of families. 

FNW: We’ve seen how for some companies the bags category can actually grow to be bigger than footwear. How big is the bags business for you at present?

ND: It varies from market to market. Somewhere like the Middle East it can be over 40%, but for us overall it’s around 20%-25%. We certainly see a lot of opportunities for growth in all of our categories but bags can really be a big business for us. We’re seeing good take up here in our home market in our stores and with our partners, but also in global markets we’re seeing a lot of interest. It can be easier to tell your brand story with bags.

FNW: Clearly the UK is your core market, do you feel you’re at saturation point there?

ND: These are very exciting times, we’ve got a lot of exciting growth aspirations both in the UK and globally. In our home market [it’s] really about bringing together our stores a digital presence, both those that we do ourselves and those of our partners and making the most of all of those channels.

We’ve got about 50 standalone stores in the UK, [plus concessions] and we’re with Next, with John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, so a broad distribution. But we think we’ve got a lot to do still to reach the core customer base within the UK, whether they’re shopping online and whether they’re shopping in stores. So a big UK piece.

FNW: I assume the opportunity outside the UK is much bigger though?

ND: There’s a big global piece for us with two areas of focus. We’ve got a large business already in the Middle East that we’ve had for 10+ years. We’ve got around 50 stores and a digital presence there and we see a lot more growth opportunity there.

The US is a much more recent adventure for us. [We entered it] a couple of years ago and we work with partners to really grow our brand presence and our distribution. 

We have other international markets as well, but the US and the Middle East are where we really see the ‘scale’ opportunity.

In the US, we’re working with Nordstrom and Dillards in particular, but also other partners that we’re adding, to understand their customers. We’re increasingly clear and confident about our brand and how that translates through both on the footwear and the bags side. We’re confident in that DNA, but when you meet new customer bases with new partners you want to learn from them. They know their customers far better than we do

FNW: How big is the US business for you at the moment and do you see potential in Europe too?

ND:  Today [our US business is] very small because we’ve only been there two years but we see there’s potential for it to grow quite dramatically. 

We have some strong European markets already, a strong presence in Ireland and in the Netherlands. But we do have a lot of markets where we don’t have very much of a presence other than through digital partners like Zalando and others. It’s absolutely an opportunity, I think, very much building on the digital partnerships that we’ve got, seeing where demand really spikes and deciding where we want to put more resource, more effort, before we put stores on the ground. 

I can imagine a point where we might have stores in Europe, absolutely, but I think it’s important to sequence these things well, and these days when you’re working with digital partners that can go an awfully long way in [telling you] where those hotspots are. As we all know, stores are a costly investment these days and you need the demand to be there before you spend. 

FNW: You’ve just unveiled your SS25 campaign that’s all about travel and London, is your marketing approach specific to individual markets or more global?

ND: Almost all the marketing activity we do is with a global hat on rather than just a UK or US one. Whether we’re working with influencers, with celebrities, or just telling our story, we’re always trying to find a hook that will work globally, as recently with Bella Hadid, which will work here and in the US and Middle East.

But in the Middle East for Ramadan, we will do a separate shoot working with our partner, making sure that’s very focused on their markets there. 

FNW: Given your US ambitions, are tariff threats an issue for you at the moment?

ND: Clearly there’s uncertainty but we’re in the fortunate position that we have a market that’s currently relatively small in the US. I’m sure by the time we’re at scale there we’ll have found ways of mitigating the uncertainty as all brands are doing at the moment! 

FNW: And talking of potential problems, what about the weather, are you vulnerable to that? 

ND: I wouldn’t use the word vulnerable but we sell a lot of sandals in summer and we sell a lot of boots in winter! So the timing of those things absolutely impacts us. Very consciously over the last couple of years what we’ve been trying to do is make ourselves less susceptible to the vagaries of the weather. But part of what I was saying about bags is that there’s a big standalone opportunity for them and they’re much less of a seasonal category for us.

FNW: Is your growing sports business part of that process of protecting yourself from seasonal issues?

ND: We used to have a 5%-6% sports business but we’ve seen that the category has grown dramatically. It’s not such a seasonal product, it’s a bit more year-round. It’s well into double-digits now. We see that continuing to grow for us and if you’re going to stores at certain times of year, it may be that 20% of the store is about sports, all of it with a Dune touch. We’re not a sports brand but we can do sports in a very Dune way. 

FNW: It seems to be something to which the consumer is responding positively. What sort of vibe are you getting from shoppers at present?

ND: We’ve had a reasonably consistent vibe from the consumer for the last two or three years. People have got money to spend and when people fall in love with a product, they will spend. However almost everyone at every level is cautious on their spending and so the product they fall in love with has got to be [special] — either something new or something right of the moment, or that speaks to them through colour or materials. If you’re trying to sell a product that’s very similar to what they may have seen last year that’s a hard sell!