Five Things Friday UK - M&S, ONS Data Delay, TikTok GMV Max, Charlotte Tilbury Pop‑ups

M&S launches a dedicated resale shop on eBay (with Reskinned), the ONS delays July retail sales to 5 Sept, TikTok Shop’s GMV Max becomes the only supported campaign type, Sainsbury’s begins a facial‑recognition trial, Lush closes UK stores for a day in solidarity with Gaza, and Charlotte Tilbury drives experiential shade‑matching at John Lewis and Café Airbrush in Covent Garden. Simone Oloman joins to decode what matters for operators—right now. Show notes / references:

In this UK edition of Five Things Friday, Alex and Simone Oloman cover six moves reshaping trading plans this month:

• Resale goes mainstream: M&S × eBay launches an official pre‑loved shop, powered by Reskinned—a cleaner, scalable route to circularity than DIY platforms. Operators: track supply inflows, voucher economics, and re‑commerce margin mix. Marks & Spencer

• Demand sensing > lagging KPIs: The ONS delayed the July 2025 retail sales release to 5 Sept for quality assurance; combine official series with real‑time social/returns data for better buys and markdowns. Office for National Statistics

• Social commerce hardens: TikTok Shop Ads → GMV Max only. Expect heavier automation; ensure attribution and returns accounting are wired for campaign‑level ROAS and net‑margin truth. TikTok For Business+1

• Safety vs privacy: Sainsbury’s begins an 8‑week facial‑recognition pilot in Sydenham (London) and Oldfield Park (Bath); union support vs privacy‑rights pushback—governance, DPIAs, and signage matter. corporate.sainsburys.co.ukbigbrotherwatch.org.uk

• Brand activism with teeth: Lush shut UK shops, website and factories for a day—authenticity is an operational decision, not a slogan. Budget for impact and community response. Lush

• Experience = acquisition: Charlotte Tilbury turns shade matching into a moment (John Lewis photo‑booths; Café Airbrush at Covent Garden). High‑touch, low‑friction sampling feeds CRM and lifetime value. British Beauty CouncilTheIndustry.beauty

Chapters / timestamps (mm:ss)
00:00 – Welcome & format (fast 15)
00:58 – M&S × eBay resale (why it’s smart, how it scales)
02:14 – ONS delay & the case for live demand signals
03:50 – TikTok Shop GMV Max: what marketers must change
04:32 – Sainsbury’s: facial‑recognition pilot (safety vs privacy)
06:05 – Lush: one‑day UK closures; what “authenticity” really costs
06:55 – Charlotte Tilbury shade‑match activation (John Lewis)
09:19 – Café Airbrush & Covent Garden Big Beauty
10:00 – Wrap, next week teasers & CTAs

Show notes / references:
• M&S launches resale on eBay (Reskinned partnership): https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/media/press-r

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Five ThingsFriday UK edition with my
fabulous FO host Simone. OK, thank you for joining us on

(00:20):
this fast-paced 15 minutes or less hopefully look at the and
we're going to potentially go over, but it's value to you and
your ears, all the viewers who are listening.
And just coincidentally, Simone,last week's episode that we we
filmed and got out on the same day was actually one of the
highest trending episodes since we started this little project

(00:41):
together. So oh gosh, I'm giving the
secrets away. We're starting with you and M
and. SM and S launches resale on
eBay. What I liked is it's not in like
a clearance last season, dusty stockroom kind of where it's
really curated. They're launching A resale shop,
It's pre loved, curated and resold to give their clothes a

(01:06):
second life. I think it's really small as it
taps into a huge second hand market without pretending to be
deep up. Obviously it hits sustainability
calls and in a very public and practical way.
And to me it brings in and it really is targeting a new shop
cohort. You know, it's resale savvy
values LED and I think probably quite Gen Z ish.

(01:30):
But yeah, really smart. Look, we know the resale economy
is booming. And yeah, I'm also just a big
fan of and brands that that partner with resale platforms
instead of trying to launch their own kind of clunky
version. I think it's a smart thing to
do. So Weldon M&S.
Yeah, no, I love it. I agree with you.
A plug for the European 5 ThingsFriday.

(01:50):
Listen to that and we'll talk about all about what happens
with Amazon's resale programme. That is also this week.
I think it's for three days, butlet me jump straight into it.
So we're going to focus and 1st ones, consumer social media and
demand signals. I know I always clap and pray to
you as first up, the data picture.

(02:11):
The UK Statistics office delayedtheir July retail sales to
today, Friday the 5th of September, citing the need for
extra quality cheques. And that's really, really
unusual. But it's important because sales
data is one of the ways boards calibrate trading plans, their
pricing and inventory. And the delay, the the delay has

(02:32):
sort of sharpened the debate about how well traditional
monthly sales, you know, historical POS data snapshots
capture what shoppers are actually doing.
And as you and I have talked about so much, shoppers are
online shopping online. And so in the world of TikTok
driven discovery, flash promotions, viral campaigns,

(02:55):
they have to account somehow forthe high return rates and, and
this new world that has sort of become social commerce.
And Alice have been pointing to social commerce as the growing
swing factor with the viral spikes, same day spikes.
And then as as I said, it's, it's a bit of a mess for them.
So kudos to the to the statistician who's going to sit

(03:19):
there with all the social media data to put it together, but
they've delayed it for tomorrow.And so well, let's see what
comes out. Also, if you are as we're
staying, it's this isn't one of our things, but I'll talk about
it anyway. You mentioned TikTok shop the
way that TikTok is accepting advertising and ads on TikTok,
they're changing in terms of more AI powered capabilities and

(03:43):
the on demand platform is calledGMV Max.
It is now the only supported campaign type for shop ads.
The practical takeaway for your retail teams, if you're a a
marketeer or CMO or an exec in that area, expect more automated
optimization and make sure your attribution and returns

(04:04):
accounting can keep up because social commerce isn't just
marketing anyone. I think this is a really
important part. It's part of the trading engine,
but you probably know that Mister and missus retail, so you
don't need me to tell you that Moving swiftly on to a a very
the retail problem has a shrink problem, it has a theft problem.

(04:24):
It is global. So I totally respect retailers
trying to solve this criminalitythat is coming into their
stores. Sainsbury's unfortunately got
caught on the wrong side of this.
They did have a press release here talking about their retail
technology. The next that sort of starts

(04:46):
live face recognition file in two stores in Sydenham in
London, Oldfield Park in Bath for about 8 weeks.
The supermarket says the images and I'll just talk through it
rather than going what what theysaid is basically you go in,
they have a known database of people that lifted in their
stores or a part of whatever, the national database of bad

(05:09):
actors and it, it, it matches the two together.
And there's been an outcry from,you know, privacy groups to the
point where they've deleted it, as you can see here.
And you know, they, I don't knowif they're backtracking.
It was a limited 8 week campaignanyway that they were going to
see. But the, the civil liberty

(05:29):
groups all sort of said. And I think if you live in
London, especially in Ealing, there is a a weird feeling when
you're walking into Ealing station and the police have this
massive van with 500 cameras capturing, you know, commuters
going into work. So it's really topical.
Whether it's right or wrong, I'll leave that to you to

(05:51):
decide. It's not for me to tell you.
And then here's something that Ithink in in a world where
cultural relevance is really important to brands and brands
think about how they adopt and how they are authentic in
themselves, I have to respect Lush.
Lush is very authentically true to what they talk about and how

(06:12):
they stand up for different causes and and groups.
They shut 100 stores this week in collaborate in sorry in
solidarity with Gaza. As you can see, you can pop onto
the Lush website and read about it there.
I just think, forgetting this for one second, how do brands

(06:33):
demonstrate authenticity? And I think Lutch do a good job
of that and and people should take note of what's going on
there. Coming on to you for Charlotte
Tilbury. Yeah, so this weekend I was in
John Lewis shopping for a new photo frame and I could see a
humongous queue in the beauty department.

(06:55):
So I was like, right, I need to go and investigate.
And it was Charlotte Tilbury. It was a full on as we just saw
that I guess a photo beef experience with the tagline.
No philtre, just a flawless match and you can go in, sit
inside, get your skin tone scanned and then boom free
sample in your perfect shirt. It was really effective.

(07:19):
You know it was 0 effort, high interaction and instant
gratification and honesty. The the queues all big.
So you didn't fancy queuing? No way, I don't think I'm
getting in that queue, but I, I do, you know what I, I always
thinking it really happened thinking about Charlotte
Tilbury. But that is one of we know
beauty is booming and beauty is doing really, really well, but

(07:40):
Charlotte Tilbury is one of the bands that just really gets it.
They really understand that we've, we've banged on about
this with space and care a couple of weeks ago, that beauty
needs to feel like entertainmentand they're making beauty
experiential, I I guess, withoutit being intimidating as well,
you know? That's the biggest thing,
intimidation. It's like, you know, whilst it

(08:01):
it might sound silly like that, that could be actually quite
confronting. You know, some people are really
conscious about the skin. Yeah, absolutely.
But I also just felt like it, itwasn't just like luxury for like
for luxury sake, you know, it was like, yes, it felt like a
bit of a TikTok moment, but thenyeah, I don't know.
I just I thought it was did really well and the queue proved

(08:22):
it so. Yeah, I think it's such a
personal thing. I did a project with Boots once
and we, we went into the stores,we listened to the customers and
listening to whether it's a young girl getting acne or a
young boy, because now boys are buying makeup as well.
So again, kudos to people who are taking proactive steps to,

(08:42):
to, to have better skin. But this whole personalization
thing in beauty, I think is a, is a big thing.
And I, and I have to, I, I always want to credit.
So this profile is with Edith and it's called London Diaries
and she's on TikTok and I'll putit in the show notes.
So I think it's really good. Sticking with beauty for my

(09:03):
final one. I've spoken about Sunny before,
her profile is See You Sunny. So if you're in London looking
for something to do See You Sunny every week religiously,
you'll get a whole plethora of freebies of things to do.
There is a beauty big beauty event at Common Garden.
It just feels like if you go to Common Garden any weekend, they

(09:25):
should be some form of freebie that you can pick up.
But looking at all the brands here, it's it's a it's a big
beauty bash. And I think, you know, if you're
up for it, maybe you can get down there.
Simone, I don't know if you're on the market for any new beauty
products. I'm always in the market for new
beauty products. I will probably be going down
there. OK, well listen, we did it

(09:46):
underneath 15 minutes. Just this we did it in 10
minutes. So houses.
Oh, it's ask like yeah, and let me you know, you know, to to to
you, the listener who's giving us your ears.
We missed out the introduction of who we are and what we do and
just thought, OK, that's what wedo.
Let me know. Do you prefer these fast-paced
keep it to 15 minutes or do you like linger and dwell where we

(10:08):
sort of dwell and unpack things?I've waffled.
Do you think I've waffled? I can waffle for for for King's
sake. What have you got plans for next
week? Me this weekend I'm I was in.
I've just come back from a wising this week, this weekend
and I was the master of ceremonyas well.
Big role. Nice.
I can imagine you're very good at that.
Thank. You.

(10:29):
So I'm chilling this weekend. Chilling, chilling, chilling.
It's quite a lot. And are you've got anything next
week? Next week other than.
You know any events or anything?No, we've just today, we've just
come back from this morning. We've been at Lloyds Bank doing
a little pop up there, popping up last.

(10:50):
Next So what the banks talk about like founders and funding
and everything, all that stuff. We were more actually.
We had a spin the wheel, which was fun, where people scan our
QR codes, spin the wheel and geta prize.
We had our bike there with the shopping bags on.
Just oh cool. Where was that next activation?
It wasn't if the activation, yeah.

(11:10):
In a bank. In a bank, well, you know, it's
meeting the customer where they already are as I have one about
all the time on this podcast. Well, next week I'm I'm talking
and it's a shameless plug. I'm kicking off the Rethink
Productivity forum that's only for retailers.
It's sold out, but there's a wait list.
It's in Birmingham next Thursday, so if you're on the

(11:34):
list, I look forward to seeing you there.
If you're not, pop your name down.
We might get to say hello and onthat bombshell.
But thank you so much for joining us.
Until next week, Simone.