SECTOR FOCUS: RETAIL
before Christmas showed that over half (54 per cent) were advertising sales or promotions in their shop window and average discounts were 39 per cent, a significant rise compared to the same week in the previous year. Andy Lyon, retail expert and partner at PwC in the Midlands, said: “There is no doubt that shoppers in the Midlands have been digging deep to pick up the goods they want both before and after Christmas and some attention-grabbing discounts have certainly helped to drive spending.
The season of good cheer?
T
he High Street has enjoyed a better-than-expected sales period over the festive season, largely due to some hefty discounting, but the true cost of Christmas will not be
known until retailers report on profits later this year, according to retail experts at PwC in the Midlands. Following some positive trading reports from a number of High Street
retailers, the British Retail Consortium has revealed that like-for-like sales among UK retailers were 2.2 per cent up on Christmas 2010, when sales fell 0.3 per cent, hit by snow and ice. According to PwC, one of the main reasons for the better-than-expected
Christmas trading season is the widespread use of discounting activity during December, which is likely to have cut deeply into profit margins. Research carried out by PwC among 100 High Street retailers in the week
‘The true cost of Christmas for Midlands retailers is not yet known’
“With like-for-like sales up 2.2 per cent on Christmas 2010, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium, many High Street retailers will be relieved that they have managed to shift stocks and convert them into cash at a critical time in the retail calendar. “However, the true cost of Christmas for Midlands retailers is not yet known and we will have to wait for profit reports later this year to see what impact discounting activity has had on margins and some retailers may find that they have slipped into negative territory.” The post-Christmas period is a particularly
testing time for retailers – a time when those that have failed to achieve their target sales figures are forced to make cuts or risk defaulting on rent payments. According to PwC, the fall-out from this year’s festive trading season may not yet be complete.
Customer and community focus
There can be no doubt that 2011 kept the retail industry on its toes, and with the economic news agenda anticipating another challenging year ahead, retailers must be prepared to work harder than ever before to ensure that they can stay ahead of the game. One of our biggest challenges for
RETAIL THERAPY
2012 as an industry will be online retailing. While it is certain that online retailing will continue to grow and influence our industry, this certainly does not mean the end of the in-store and in-centre shopping experience. In fact, as online shopping grows, we will begin to see the online and offline shopping experiences work increasingly in unison, to complement and generate opportunities for each other.
‘We will begin to see the online and offline shopping experiences work increasingly in unison’
For example, the fast growth of the ‘click and collect’ approach recently adopted by many retailers is a strong testament to this. The idea of ordering online, but collecting in-store, is generating extra footfall. Furthermore, we have seen a trend emerging,
whereby increasing numbers of consumers are visiting shopping centres for the experience itself. Shopping is no longer just functional or purposeful. The act has evolved into a leisurely experience, complete with a relaxing coffee break, meal or even a film, during which consumers are able to enjoy a bit of ‘me time’, something online retailing is yet to offer. Customer service also has an important role to play in
this experience. As with their product and in-store experiential offering, retailers must continually evolve their customer service to ensure that they deliver the
BY LUCY BURNETT MARKETING MANAGER AT TOUCHWOOD
excellent standards that are expected of them. For example, our team at Touchwood has become the first in the region to undertake the WorldHost® training programme. The course was undertaken in conjunction with the Greater Birmingham Skills Shop Retail Academy at Solihull College, and will better equip our team with both the skills and knowledge to deliver a superior level of customer service. We must also work closely
together as both a retail community and as a local community, to share best practice and collectively offer consumers the
retail experience they crave. These partnerships will ensure that we can continue to drive our offering forward as a whole, to provide us with a stronger position from which to operate.
New home: the Lush store at 23 New Street, Birmingham
City location for cosmetics shop
Handmade cosmetics retailer Lush moved to a prime location in Birmingham city centre before Christmas in one of three deals completed by Cushman & Wakefield. The Dorset-based firm, which has about 100 shops nationwide, has a taken a 10-year lease on 23 New Street, at a rent of £150,000 per annum. “The new shop is in a slightly
better position and a bigger unit, hence the relocation,” said Rob Alston, retail partner at Cushman & Wakefield, who arranged the deal on behalf of client LaSalle Investment Manager, investment manager for HSBC Pension Fund. 23 New Street is part of a number of units owned by HSBC Pension Fund at this location (21-25 New Street), two of which are occupied by Clarks Shoes and Carphone Warehouse. Cushman & Wakefield has
arranged new leases for both these tenants recently, as their existing deals were about to expire.
FEBRUARY 2012 CHAMBERLINK 47
Andy Lyon
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