“So... Is there a future in being a high street retailer, or not?”, was the tongue-in-cheek question put to me while talking with a potential client about other businesses in the area which had closed and how to avoid a similar fate. I'm definitely not the oracle of all things retail-related but from an outside perspective I'd like to think I've learnt a thing or two.

Now, to suggest there is no future in high street retail is far too strong but I know full well what the guy meant. Like all small business owners, they want assurances that they’ve got something to look forward to when things are so uncertain in this almost entirely retail-driven economy of ours. Selling goods from a shop is all he knows, it was passed down the family and it's what he's good at but there has to be a willingness to change and evolve.

It’s no secret that local high streets and town centre shopping has, is, and will be further damaged badly by the arrival and expansion of supermarkets in any given area. Supermarkets are now the nemesis of the independent retailer, largely replacing shopping malls with the threat they pose.
     We have all witnessed retail giants such as Tesco constantly moving into every possible sector of retail, everything from electronics to garden furniture to DIY to clothing to banking and even installing beauty therapy and hair dressing within its stores. To me, it’s completely soulless and products are sold with no character or individuality. I spend the bare minimum of time I possibly can in a supermarket but my own shopping patterns are irrelevant as this is about the wider economical picture.

Local councils and governments are generally tempted by offers of ‘all expenses paid’ redevelopment of an area and use of unwanted industrial brown-belt land. Usually it is not only the site itself but surrounding road infrastructures and amenities are also redeveloped by a supermarket’s arrival. This presents a moral vs financial dilemma for local councils which of course finances usually win. No surprises there, that’s the world we live in.
If you’re a small business owner or even a mid-sized retail chain located in the area it is undoubtedly a massive worry to try and compete with a ‘trusted’ household name such as Tesco who can out-price you on everything and anything as well as selling it all under one roof, which is understandably the appeal to the majority of shoppers.

So, as if competition from supermarkets in the physical locality wasn’t enough... We’re then presented with the ever increasing presence of internet shopping. I admit it… I did ALL of my Christmas shopping online for the past few years and I have no shame in doing so. No risk of catching a cold, queuing or driving endlessly around a car park looking for a space? I’m sold.
We tend to put the responsibility of the consumer to have a moral duty to save the independent retailer and that's wrong. We can't realistically expect people to accept less choice at higher prices and less convenience. It's the responsibility of the retailers to evolve and governments to help them.

I think it's widely accepted that any branded consumer product available in a shop can be found cheaper and more easily online, often with free next day delivery. Not just locally or within a national boundary but internationally from our own home. We can buy almost any item in any currency from any continent.
 Buyers can even educate themselves on playing exchange rates to their advantage and purchasing items from abroad even cheaper still.

So it begs the question: What can independent retailers do to stay in business when faced with the enormous advantages that internet retailers and supermarkets hold over them? Anything? Or do they just accept this is the way things are, roll over and accept their fate as retail history?
     Of course, we have to consider out of town shopping malls which offer independent retailers strength in numbers (which in a bitter sweet irony have decimated many high streets in their own right) but in this instance we’re focusing on town, village and city centre retail locations. These places were the heart of our communities a long time before commercial, widespread chain retail ripped the soul out of them.

The three basic points of why people mainly go to supermarkets and shop online are not hard to work out: Convenience, price and choice. That’s it.
So the convenience factor first: As an independent retailer there is little you can do about the fact you are relying on customers to literally leave their home and travel to your store to view the items which you stock. If you stock the same branded items as a supermarket, you’re losing this battle as customers can buy the item in question and do their grocery shopping at the same time AND park easily, for free. Something town centres just can’t or choose not to offer.
Do we even need to explain why the internet is a more convenient than visiting a shop? So, that's a no brainer.
Price: If you stock branded consumer items, you’ve lost this one to the internet as well. You're competing against warehouses fronted by websites, with no stores and the associated overheads.
Choice: A million websites and supermarkets with almost unlimited buying power vs. your single store with limited shelf space. I don't need to explain that one either!

So we arrive at the basic point of all this and the opinion I gave to this individual… As a retailer with  physical premises, you have got to offer a lifestyle choice and the chance for a consumer to feel part of something.

Why do luxury designer fashion and jewellery houses still always have high street stores? If like me you have a ‘thing’ for watches or maybe you’re a woman with a ‘thing’ for bags and shoes (all of you, then), you know the answer; To offer you the chance to enter their world, smell, touch, hold, try the product. Literally feel the quality and exclusivity. While you're in their store you're part of their world and the store itself is a big part of the marketing and image for a brand. You view the products in their own environment, in the correct lighting and display settings.
Objects of desire translate far better in person and it’s a lot easier to simply log off a computer than it is to leave a store without making a purchase (especially with a sales person on commission following you around!). Are you going to go all that way, try the item and not buy?
     
Maybe you love cars, and if you own a prestige brand car nowadays, you know the customer service on offer at most flagship showrooms even for window shoppers. Fresh coffee, flat screen TV's, beautifully presented, visually impressive showrooms filled with the smell of leather and that 'new car smell'. It’s enticing, designed to feed every one of your senses to help you to fall in love with the product.

As a retailer, you have got to offer this kind of experience which consumers simply cannot get by sitting at home or wandering the isles of a sterile supermarket. This might sound like common sense but most of the high street still hasn’t woken up to this fact. We still seem to think that a shop is a shop, products stacked on shelves, a counter where you pay and not much else. Maybe once upon a time that was fine, but now I’m afraid that unless it's a budget/pound shop that attitude is wrong... Unless you literally own the only convenience store in the village and the next town is a drive away.

Offer Wi-Fi, offer coffee (or a glass of something bubbly), create an image and a brand, find a market niche and create an environment via interior design which is worth leaving the house to visit. Get to know your client, become familiar with exactly what their expectations are and make sure you meet them.
Reward the effort of the visitor with a real social experience and make sure it's a completely different one to the competition down the road. 
Yes, it takes planning, effort, intelligent marketing which definitely does not come naturally to us all.  It might also take a totally reworked business plan and the cost of hiring professionals to do all of the above for you if you are not that way inclined, but if you’re not, don’t just blindly 'have a go', the worst thing you can do is guess and get it badly wrong. If in doubt, ask someone who knows. Companies like my own will happily charge a flat fee for a casual consultancy with no obligation.

As I said earlier; it isn't just down to the retailer, our governments and councils must do more to help our entrepreneurs and small business owners. There is a lot that local town and city councils can and should do (but often won’t) to attract shoppers back to the high street including free or at least available and convenient parking but the fact of the matter is… If you make your premises worth the hassle of leaving the house and parking the car on a rainy day, people will make the effort.
 
This doesn’t just apply to retail premises either, it applies to any business relying on foot fall to put money in the till. It has never been more difficult to stand out from the crowd and make a success of a public-facing business of any kind but if you get the formula right and provide people with a coherent cultural lifestyle choice, you stand every chance of making it.

Despite now being almost entirely a retail economy, consecutive governments have allowed town centres to be completely obliterated with selfish decision making, poor town planning and basic greed but unfortunately I can’t see that ever changing now. That horse has bolted. They 'should' be offering subsidies to first time business owners and niche businesses to fill empty units with something interesting to the public, building an image and character for their town instead of charity shops, betting shops, 'cash for gold' and cheap, generic bars. Double yellow lines on every street forcing everyone to used paying car parks. The traditional British town is becoming a sad sight, run by people who have little or no interest in sustainability and survival of its entrepreneurs. 
 
All this doom and gloom aside, in the future I can genuinely see town centres returning to be a working and social hub for a town rather than mainly retail driven. Gyms, cafés, restaurants, bars, clubs, apartments, arcades, specialist markets, offices, small and specialist/boutique independent retailers will replace most generic town centre shops as chain stores slowly pull out. As I say, creating an identity and character for the town. People should want to visit to be part of it.

There is no need for retailers to panic, it’s not doomsday just yet. We just have to be switched on, savvy and recognise the needs of the modern consumer. Be flexible, evolve with social patterns, use every tool at your disposal (including social media) and listen to what people want. If we re-think what the role of the high street is and do it right, companies will undoubtedly reinvest if it's a success... "Build it (if you build it right), and they will come".

 Paul Hancock
  (Founder & Director)

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