Retail Week Live: Debenhams international director John Scott on overseas expansion

Talking as part of a panel of speakers discussing the nuances of international expansion, Scott said: “I don’t think there’s been a harder time to do business.

“A lot of British retailers like us relied on franchise and joint venture partners…but the interesting thing is that a lot of big franchise partners have been slow to pick up on ecommerce.

“They will deny ecommerce is going to be big in their country. Other retailers are trying to grow [in that country] by doing it themselves and that’s what we do…but it’s hard to sit in the UK and understand local nuances. That’s why I think localised marketplaces will be the big story for the next five to ten years.”

On its own international expansion, Scott said Debenhams tends to open stores in emerging markets where there’s no established department store players.

Africa is next on the agenda for the British department store group. “Places like Nigeria are exciting to see how they’re developing.”

During the discussion, Michael Kliger, president of fashion etailer MyTheresa, spoke of the importance of offering customers the ability to make purchases in their own local currency. “Even though people are used to [shopping in] dollar and pounds, it’s important to accommodate local currency.”

Also on the panel was Xavier Vidal, chief executive of Zebra, the parent company of Danish retailer Tiger. He said that it was crucial to focus on “staying true to yourself” when jumping into new markets.

He added: “You have to localise but as a retail brand you shouldn’t try and do the same thing for Japan in a Japanese way; we have a Danish concept that we offer in Japan.”

Vidal said that Tiger stores, with its huge interactive experience which encourage customer to “dance” and take “selfies” were a great experience. “If we do ecommerce it has to complement this and stay true.”