Are we now approaching an age of the rounded retail professional?
Internet Retailing recently asked this question to Sir Terry Leahy, the former CEO at Tesco who cemented his reputation for leadership and commercial delivery. Sir Terry raised the point that we are indeed going to start to see the emergence of executives who have both on and offline experience. In other words, retail people who are comfortable in both spaces.
And we totally agree, its all about leveraging technology and data to enable all channels.
Whether we like it or not, technology is driving consumer behaviour to a world of engagement, entertainment and the ability to shop where, how and when we like. Unfortunately the current high street is the collateral damage. Times are changing and will not be reversed. But it’s not a case of either bricks and mortar or online, it’s about both complimenting one another. You see a customer purchase journey will no longer be linear; as in straight to the very shop or a particular website, but will happen through multiple touch points both on and offline. This is already happening. Retailers therefore have to embrace a multi-channelled approach and use technology to support them.
Mobile was a huge driver of e-commerce shopping in December, 2011 with more than a quarter of Christmas online shopping sprees taking place on mobile, but mobile should actually rapidly become a top priority for brick and mortar merchants too, because it gives them the opportunity to use mobile vouchers and geolocation targeting to drive traffic into stores. People will always like social relationships after all. Meanwhile digital gives merchants the opportunity for international expansion to sell to other audiences that are harder and costlier to do physically.
The blame for the demise of the high street can’t all be soley placed at the feet of ecommerce either. Certainly in the UK it’s about business rates too, (currently almost forty pence in the pound), forcing out the smaller independent shops. And then in times of recession, many of the chain stores who snapped up the original high street space proved to be fair weather friends, abandoning the high street entirely, to migrate to large, high volume indoor shopping centres, or simply by shutting their less profitable stores and leaving gaping holes. The number of empty shops on UK High Streets is set to rise in 2012. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) described vacancy rates as “worryingly high” in many parts of the country and called on the government to reduce business rates, which are set to rise by 5.6% in April 2012.
So on Saturday, the government announced that it was looking for 12 run-down High Streets in England to compete for a £1m prize as part of plans proposed by retail consultant Mary Portas. The scheme was described as a “golden ticket” for town centres by local government minister, Grant Shapps. As part of the contest, areas will bid for support from a dedicated team and Ms Portas herself.
And have you heard about the cool Empty Shops Network? Pop up arts spaces create a mutually beneficial relationship between commerce and culture. Disused retail units can be transformed into pop up shops for young upcoming designers, or galleries, studios, workshops, performance spaces, and community centres. The variety and vibrancy brought by pop-ups can be utilised for regeneration projects and give run-down areas a new lease of life. Temporary spaces can often by used for fringe arts events, think of the Edinburgh Festival for example – where pubs and Masonic Lodges are transformed into one of the 265 venues used for this annual event.
So how do you feel about the new opportunities for retailers to be found in the on and offline convergence?
Well we love Sir Terry’s comment: “If I were 25 years younger I’d be really, really excited.”
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