cated in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Perth. Last year, the business launched 12 concession stores and by the end of October, it will have 39 physical store locations. While other brands may be closing their physical stores and foot traffic has decreased across the board, Academy Brand has actually found 4 per cent overall like-for-like growth within the business in FY19, according to Roux. “In terms of expansion, we’ve been really careful about where we’ve done the growth. We haven’t put stores in every centre across Australia. We’re not going to do that, we don’t want to to do that. It’s not our strategy,” she told Inside Retail.  “We do a lot of thinking around where our locations will work based on where our customer is, who he is and where will resonate with our brand. We’re not oversaturated in the market and there’s something to be said about that.” Roux, who has worked for 21 years in the retail industry, believes that while online plays a significant role in the sector, customers still crave the human connection that physical stores offer. The key lies in retailers focusing on  “People are fearful that online is going to stop bricks-and-mortar retail. I think we have to get back to the basic, human behavioural stuff, which is humans want connection. We have never been a more lonely society than we are now and the research shows that people are feeling more disconnected than ever,” she said. “People want ease of shopping, so they go online and research. But then they go in-store to connect with a human, have a conversation, ask about the product and the fabric. Then they want someone to say ‘That looks good on you’ or ‘That doesnt’ look good on you, take it off’. Retailers need to embrace that and go ‘it’s not going to be the doom and gloom of every retail store closing.”