With the continued fall out in the retail sector and ongoing concerns around the impact of a 'no deal' Brexit, each day we see the opening up of bargain basement opportunities for companies like 'Next' to add logical brand category extensions like 'Victoria's Secret' and the 'Marie Claire Fabled' brand into the mix.

A welcome strategy we're now seeing continuing with other ageing retail multiples.

For retail to come out of this shit show with a semblance of relevance to the post Covid consumer re-invention and logical brand/product extension has to be the agile order of the day.

John Lewis has at last decided to ditch the nonsensical brand promise of 'Never Undersold' in order to morph into something fit for 21st Century retailing.

Marks and Spencers beleaguered woes continue, however the food category is seeing some amazing reinvention along with a strong consumer focus.

The 'Never the same again' transformation strategy is indeed underway and I for one wish them well. 

And now we hear that they are doing something that previous owner should have done as a no-brainer several years prior.

Marks & Spencer has teamed up with toy retailer Early Learning Centre, which will see its products being sold on the M&S website as it seeks to build online appeal. M&S will offer 200 lines from Early Learning Centre, the toy brand owned by The Entertainer, from Thursday.

The partnership is M&S’s second online tie-up, following the introduction of sustainable fashion label Nobody’s Child a month ago.

ELC is the story telling groundwork that every parent would turn to in order to get advice, assistance, and products to help inspire and educate the offspring.

Had 'Mothercare' leveraged this key asset via social media instead of simply focusing on the 'transactional' retail experience then I'm pretty sure some of that decline would have either been stemmed, or even helped to grow as part of its brand repositioning.

Do you agree?