Aug 15

The Reality of the Wedding Industry from Emma Marshall, Miss Bush

Following a super insightful podcast with industry expert Emma Marshall, MD of leading luxury bridal boutique, Miss Bush Bridal in Surrey, Emma elaborates on her recent findings and shares her own views on the reality of the bridal industry.

IN EMMAS WORDS

"It was lovely to be able to join Pippa on the WIN podcast, I have really enjoyed catching up with previous episodes and I hope listeners will find something useful to take away from my episode.

Statistically and narratively, we know traditional retail across the board is facing challenging trading conditions. Bridal retail should be able to buck this trend if it can avoid some glaring pitfalls and if the industry faces the fact, we have a huge inventory problem.

The swollen rails, the overvaluation of stock in Reports and Accounts and the proliferation of outlet stores is evidence enough that the industry is kept alive by retailer cash and not by the end user – the bride. Additionally, the entirety of the ‘experience’ side of bridal apparel, that is groups of brides and friends dedicating days to ‘shopping’ in person yet only buying in one store has always been a flawed business model.

If we indie retailers were ‘branches’ of a much bigger retail company many would have been forcibly closed by now. For example, imagine you visit four branches of Zara and only buy one thing in one of the shops, ever, how long do you think Inditex would keep the lights on, and the staff paid?

The decline of the bridal industry needs to be managed openly and honestly by both retailers and the supply chain. To maintain a lean and profitable industry there needs to be far fewer shops and a completely rethought wholesale chain. This is not a new assertion, but the industry is unwilling to treat retailers as equal partners in the eco system.

To the fashion industry we are an embarrassment and a business opportunity. Look how easily Wed2Be became a £29 million player in the UK. The retail side of industry was and still is fragmented with an unwillingness to collaborate beyond What's App groups and a few partisan Facebook groups The wholesale side still gaslights...

I attended a seminar at White Gallery and it wasn’t tough enough, the advice was non-expert and over general. I wrote a contentious article for Wedding Trader, and I am not sure if anyone read it?"

FINAL WORD

"To protect our businesses and to gracefully manage decline over the next decade, there needs to be a consensus and shared sense of purpose. We need to be reading the difficult facts and data and planning to thrive!"

A sobering read! And a huge THANK YOU to Emma for these insights. We would love to hear your thoughts? Have your say over on instagram @weddingindustrynews today.

Listen to Emma over on the Wedding Industry News Podcast to hear more....