HELLO and welcome back to my monthly column with The Argus.

It was great to read the feedback and comments from the January edition.

This September, Churchill Square celebrates 21 years of being an undercover scheme.

Looking back over the last two decades, its remarkable how much has changed at the centre.

From a retail perspective, the landscape today is almost unrecognisable from what it was in 1998.

Looking at its original store directory is incredible and feels like a real trip back in time.

Since the late 90s, there have been many well-known British brands who dominated the British retail market space that now feel like something of a distant memory.

Woolworths, BHS, JJB Sports and Comet are names many young people today wouldn’t recognise some of those names if you asked them!

Gone are the days where traditional department stores were a focus of our shopping experience.

From a nostalgic point of view, some of us may even miss these names and stores.

However, I feel that what has taken their place in our shopping centres and high streets is more exciting than ever before.

Brands from around the world are now every day fixtures on an average shopping trip up and down the country.

H&M (Sweden), Zara and Pull & Bear (Spain), Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret and Hollister (all USA), and more have become firm favourites.

They stand shoulder to shoulder with the best in British retailing including Next, Boots, Debenhams and HMV, offering customers a more international feel.

As well as fashions and styles from all corners of the globe, it also gives different ways of doing things and alternative perspectives.

European stores in particular bring with them a much quicker product turnaround, with the lifespan of clothing in certain stores being ten or 11 weeks, compared to the four seasons model that we have been accustomed to previously.

That adaptation has been the key to the success of many retailers, as it allows them to be more flexible and agile.

This model means that summer clothing can still be available into September and October to cater for an Indian summer, and winter coats, hats, scarves and boots are still in-store into April to allow for longer winters - as we have done in recent years.

This agile and adaptable way of doing things has encouraged British brands to be different in their approach, and many are taking the lessons learnt from the continent and putting them in action and being successful in doing so.

This means that for you, the shopper, the experience of making purchases is improving all of the time.

As with every big change there are some problems that need to be addressed.

Less time for products sitting on the shelf, and sizing based on that company’s home market – can both lead to wastage.

However, I have faith that as time goes on companies are only going to get better at the way they adapt and manage this from an environmental standpoint.

From my perspective, a global shopping experience all in one place is a good thing.

For customers it means now, more options than ever before are at your fingertips and for retailers there is the need to constantly innovate.

This can only be a positive for the future of British retail.