After a decade of algorithmic recommendations and infinite-scroll fatigue, physical retail is offering something the digital world can’t quite crack. Those at the cutting edge of this transformation show how stores can become spaces for building sustainable businesses—creating clear opportunities in an industry racing to evolve.
Sustainable fashion’s growth story? It’s happening IRL
Neighbouring the fluorescent sensory overload of your average high street stores, Nudie Jeans Repair Shops don’t only sell jeans—they tell the story of denim’s evolution. Stacked against unpolished concrete walls on rustic shelves are neat piles of new jeans and covetably worn-in pre-loved pieces. Approachable staff are at the ready to find you the perfect fit. It’s also a hub for circularity: here, loyal customers return to their Nudie jeans (for free, for life). It’s a retail experience that stands out, and that’s no mean feat in an increasingly competitive market.
Following almost five years of online dominance, physical retail’s performance is returning to pre-pandemic levels. In many ways, the world has changed, and retail stores need to adapt to shifting consumer demands. While high streets and shopping centres are still dominated by faceless global brands, the inherent values that small brands bring to retail spaces—namely community, curation, and storytelling—are capturing the attention of landlords, investors, and shoppers alike.
Experts believe that physical retail can be an effective vehicle for education and engagement with circularity initiatives like repair services and takeback programmes to help extend the life of garments, but an omnichannel, data-backed approach will be critical to the future of such in-store experiences. Could 2025 see a shift in fashion’s retail landscape?
Physical retail has a personal edge over e-commerce’s endless scroll
While the physical limitations of storefronts can’t compete with the vast abyss of e-commerce, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Business of Fashion and McKinsey’s latest State of Fashion report estimates that 74% of shoppers have walked away from online purchases because of the sheer volume of products on offer.
Increasingly, shoppers want curation and the ability to discover brands they might never have heard of—not just those with the best SEO. “We’re living in such an oversaturated world where there is so much noise and so much choice,” says Rebecca Morter, founder and chief executive of Lone Design Club (LDC).
LDC has hosted more than 110 pop-ups around the UK—predominantly London but also Liverpool, Cardiff, and Leeds—since 2018, creating physical retail spaces for around 3,500 independent, sustainably minded small businesses in that time.
“It’s all about curation, personalisation, and an experience that feels like it’s been tailored for you,” says Morter. “For us, retail is about how a brand can grow its audience, retain customers, and bring them into its world. Crucially, it allows brands to be proactive in conveying their sustainability story.”
The beauty of physical retail is being able to actually convey that story on a deeper level.
Rebecca Morter – Lone Design Club founder
To communicate these stories in a store environment, knowledgeable and passionate retail staff are increasingly vital. “For a lot of businesses, sustainability is at the heart of their storytelling. Store staff are not just going in to try and sell, but they’re using sustainability as an exciting talking point,” says Morter. “For LDC, the beauty of physical retail is being able to actually convey that story on a deeper level, with experts in stores who want to share this knowledge.”
At their best, stores can be platforms for brand building and circularity
For Nudie Jeans, its 30-plus retail locations around the world are spaces to share its values and build community around circularity services. Alongside resale and takeback programmes, Nudie offers free repairs for life on all of its denim.
“Nudie Jeans wouldn’t be the company it is today without our repair shops,” says Matthew Stone, regional general manager commerce for the Nordics. “They create a sense of community because we build this trust with our customers. We see customers that have had our jeans for many, many years, with different generations of repairs or patches inside their jeans.”
Our repair shops create a sense of community because we build this trust with our customers.
Matthew Stone – Nudie's regional general manager for the Nordics
Customers looking for jeans in-store can browse Nudie’s resale section, even if just to see what their new pair might look like in a few years’ time. “Our products increase in value,” says Stone. “They start off as a blank canvas, and after many years of use, create such a beautiful product that we can showcase in the reuse section of our stores. It creates the full experience for a customer, whether or not they’re looking for reused jeans.”
Of course, both LDC and Nudie Jeans have e-commerce stores, creating an omnichannel shopping experience that connects the physical and the digital. For Nudie, this has helped to streamline operations and reduce the carbon footprint of online purchases. “If you buy a product online but you’re closer to a store, the product can be shipped from the store, instead of our warehouse,” says Stone. “Or you can pick the product up in the store and try it on with the help of staff.”
At LDC, data captured in stores gives brands a 360-degree understanding of their customer’s purchasing habits—everything from which products sell and what customers spend to how e-commerce and social engagement are impacted by their presence in an LDC store. “It’s about combining what’s happening inside the physical space and how that marries back to the digital space, then using those metrics to better inform their growth strategy,” says Morter. At Nudie, information about every pair of jeans that comes in for repair is logged, giving design and buying teams insights into how their products wear and tear over time.
Forward-thinking brands and retail landlords are seizing the moment
For risk-averse landlords, property partners, and investors, data provides crucial evidence to drive sustainable brands into retail spaces. Not only can it demonstrate consumer appetite for these types of businesses, but decision-makers can use data to measure the sustainability credentials, risks, and progress of their overall brand mix. “Shopping centres are increasingly setting sustainability agendas, and they intend to use sustainability information to drive decision-making,” says Sandra Capponi, Good On You’s own co-founder. “This is a very powerful piece of the puzzle towards the change that needs to happen in the industry.”
Shopping centres are increasingly setting sustainability agendas, and they intend to use sustainability information to drive decision-making.
Sandra Capponi – Good On You's co-founder
In 2023, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW, the group behind Westfield shopping centres) and Good On You developed the Sustainable Retail Index (SRI) to measure and track brand performance on key sustainability metrics. “The SRI looks at company-wide performance all the way down the supply chain, plus store-level indicators that elevate, highlight, and reward important in-store experiences that can make a big impact on sustainability performance.” This includes repair services, second-hand offerings, and takeback programmes like those at Nudie Jeans. “We can see huge value in raising consumer awareness at all different points of their shopping experience and engaging with their consumers in different ways,” says Capponi.
Since its inception, LDC has engaged its community in a wide range of educational activities, drawing crowds to its pop-ups through workshops, networking events, and panel discussions on a variety of sustainability topics. “They’re not traditional stores, they’re meeting places to have conversations, to engage, and to learn in,” says Morter. “They foster a sense that we’re in this together, and we’re all looking for change and driving forward, and I think that’s really special and exciting.”
Fashion, like most industries, is going into 2025 with increasing pressure to meet its sustainability commitments. Some brands are ghosting on prior pledges and targets—in certain cases, it’s a reset in light of tightening green claims regulations; in others it’s more examples of short-term backtracking that won’t play well in the long run.
Ultimately, responsible brands that explore innovative and creative retail strategies will be well placed to connect with conscious shoppers. Retail stores, at their best, make circularity convenient and even aspirational. By tapping into consumer psychology, physical retail can help more sustainable brands can appeal to shoppers on a deeper level. And they give an experience that e-commerce can’t quite match: the enduring value of an expert shopkeeper helping you get the right fit and pick out the pair of jeans you’re really going to want to repair.
Stone, for one, feels optimistic about Nudie’s role in retail’s evolution: “We’re walking our own path, and creating our own future when it comes to who we want to be and what we feel is important.” And, equally important, Stone underscores: “It’s quite fun to be in retail right now.”
