Retail Strategy LTD

If you are to believe all the doom and gloom in the news the High street is over, everyone is shopping online, customers want the cheapest price, people don’t want to shop in stores anymore – look at all the shops closing left, right and centre,.. etc etc.

This is simply not the case. 

Yes there is a net decline in stores year after year, however (according to PWC) there were 9,138 store openings in 2023 across the UK. That’s back up to just shy of 2018 levels.  Yes you’ve seen a number of quite big names fall from grace – hardly surprising given the amount of unexpected events in the past few years, which many companies continue to feel pains from, however that’s not the whole story. Many businesses are continuing to open stores at pace and drive their expansion plans.

What the covid pandemic did, aside from the obvious of course, is rapidly accelerate the evolution of consumer shopping habits, which was happening anyway.  You saw a generation of technophobes forced to adopt online shopping, business’ had to plow money into their sub-standard online operations at speed in order to adapt years ahead of their business plans.  Now, as we emerge you have seen a chunk of that stick but that is merely the acceleration of a new norm.  What you have also seen however is that a large number of customers returned to store and still prefer to shop in-store.  The idea that online could replace the instore experience massively undervalues what the true element of retail really is – whilst we offer a functional benefit, and convenience, the element that people seem to forget is that retail is also a leisure industry.  Think about how many times a shopping trip has been to pass the time, meet up with friends, a full day event. The reality is if the experience is right then consumers will engage, and the companies that adapt and embrace this are the ones that lead the change. 

What the experience needs to be varies by category, brand and shop format – in some cases it’s as simple as the human element, but what is certain is customers want more from stores, and with ever squeezed disposable income there’s less money to go around.  This is one of the reasons Retail Strategy Ltd was formed. With retail careers in the commercial teams of some of the biggest blue-chip companies in the UK such as Tesco, Argos, WHSmith and Dixons (Currys), and some SME’s too, we can offer a level of understanding and knowhow to support small businesses, independent shops and the likes to really get under the skin of their business, and maximise the commercial performance through a variety of different ways. We want to support the small business owner to re-set and accelerate their evolution to maximise customer engagement and business performance so they are fighting fit for the future. Long live the highstreet