Fewer small stores on Oxford Street as flagships take over

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 22, 2017

Store numbers on London’s premier shopping thoroughfare Oxford Street have dropped to 228 from 285 since 1993 as global brand demand for giant flagship stores has seen several smaller units consolidated into larger stores, according to property specialist Savills.

Excluding retail space lost due to the giant Crossrail transport development, the company said 50 units have been lost with 29 of them being East of Oxford Circus.

Interestingly, the number of fashion retailers on the street has declined slightly too. In 1968, 32% of Oxford Street’s stores were fashion specialists while that figure is just below 30% today.

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But there has been an increase among fashion brands selling womenswear and menswear together, according to a report in Estates Gazette. Today the figure is almost 20% while 50 years ago it was a tiny 2.2%, reflecting the sharp divisions between the two categories that have closed as everyday dressing has become increasingly casual in recent decades. As a reflection of the same trend, specialist menswear stores have declined to just 1.8% of the total today, down from almost 10% in 1983, just before the casual revolution really kicked off. But health & beauty stores are now 7.5% of the total compared to 1.1% 50 years ago. In fact, the brand with the most stores on the street is Boots.

Overall, the product categories available have become less diverse with 29 retailer categories now, compared to 33 in 1993. However, the spread was even more restricted half a century ago with only 25 categories in 1968.

But one area that grown is the international spread. In 1993, 93% of the stores were UK brands, compared to just over two-thirds now. The international invasion really gathered pace during the 1990s as US brands arrived, while large European groups have continued the trend more recently. The latter now account for over 20% of stores with brands such as Zara and H&M taking multiple sites.

Only 6% of the brands that were there in 1968 are still trading on Oxford Street (led by department stores) and only 19.2% of those present in 1993 still have a presence.