BUSINESS MONITOR M


y own hometown in affluent Gloucestershire became a place of charity shops, building society


branches and to let signs. But its come back and there are the proverbial butcher and baker, although the candlestick maker is a wine merchant. So it happens. Its essential to recognise why high streets decline in the first place. The honest truth is that too many retailers think that all they have to do is put stock on the shelves and open the door. Theyve unfortunately bought into the idea build it and they will come. Its a nice one-liner for a movie, but in business, its bulls*it. You have to give them a reason to come


and come back again, but a lot of the advertising I see done by independents is dull and dreary. Meanwhile, without stirring from their living room the customer can visit the virtual high street with its seriously engaging websites. Which would you choose? About now anyone paying rent for retail premises and business rates is inclined to be saying whats the council doing? and the answer is, typically, nothing. Theres actually a good reason for that: theyre local government officers, not business people and certainly not retailers. They dont know what to do. I have two thoughts on this. First, all those above people who lost their retail management jobs have exactly the sort of experience that every local authority needs on its books. Just one such person could, with energy


and expertise, have the biggest impact on a town centre. Second, you and your commercial neighbours are the experts on what will help your street. So tell them. Get together and tell them. I have been told by council officers that this is their problem; they want to do more but theres no structure to work with. One of the things you should tell them is to recruit a retail specialist or two. Get together. Now there are two words


all independent businesses need to learn and apply. Yes, get together to ask the council for value from your business rates, but also get together to achieve better value from your marketing spend. Wheel the local newspaper(s) in and tell (yes, tell) them to sell space to everybody on your street to appear on the same page(s) and require a good discount for doing that. Ask for a feature element where each retailer gets space to write some editorial about themselves in turn. Given that the recession has hit property sales hard, and car sales are only just recovering, too, the local newspapers which rely on those sectors are between keen and desperate for that sort of deal.


Feed each other. If you expect other businesses in your immediate neck of the woods to buy from you – as you should – then you should buy from them. A ‘we aim to buy local’ boast in your premises makes sense.


H


ave a specific plan for selling to small retailers that you can show and tell in under 20 minutes. This is


one of those areas of corporate activity where the small independents can operate on an even footing with the major multiples. However I would also propose more of


that getting together. If all the staff of businesses on your street were sporting printwear that said Shop on the high street for product x at retailer y, collectively your printwear would be working much harder and you would again be feeding each other. I dont pretend that this is easy but it would certainly be valuable. Lets be positive and say it proves a


success. Well, then youve got a real story to tell, one that can be applied again and again, in town after town, street after street. You might also tell Mary Portas how to make it work, because Im not convinced that she knows.


I’ve written before about ‘five minute marketing’, ie visiting all the businesses that are within a five minute walk of your premises – it will be a lot more than you think. Apply that same thinking to the ‘get together’ principle.


I


f you leafleted them once a month with a set of offers on the high street it would not be time-consuming when you


take it in turns. As with the local newspaper, a local printer would do the legwork between the businesses involved, but dont ask anybody with no involvement to do the leafleting – it invariably ends up being done poorly. Incidentally, if you dont fancy the idea


of delivering a leaflet, have a rethink. Youll actually meet your potential customers. Ive written for a number of retail magazines and the best retailers I speak to all say the same thing: you have to get out there and meet people, not just sit behind the till. One aspect of these ideas is that you


are, at low cost, creating a buzz, the sense that something is happening at last on our high street and that helps drive footfall. Apart from businesses trading there, another beneficiary would be the commercial landlords with empty shops to


fill. Would they contribute? That might sound ludicrously optimistic, but its in their interests. Give consideration to a loyalty card.


This has been done with success in Horsham, Surrey and Faversham, Kent. I am aware of some independents who have done it alone for a single store. This is more complex and it really does need a commitment from all your neighbours. Lets just address the internet because,


as we all know, thats a big reason shops are closing. Dr Dacko of Warwick Business School


says that a key factor in those closures is that retailers havent got their online and offline propositions seamlessly aligned. They also fail to differentiate themselves. Along with Dr Dacko I think that ironically one of the saviours of the high street will be the internet. Shops will become depots where customers collect product ordered over the web. This is clearly more convenient for both the delivery companies and customers alike. Several big retailers including Tesco and Argos have had success with click and collect. I think there will also be a different form


of retailing. People appear to have accepted that the convenience and lower cost of internet shopping are more important than instant retail gratification. Therefore, stores could become trial locations. For clothing this means a store that has


one of everything for trial, but the actually purchased item arrives at the store for collection in three days time. The retailer would take payment – and a lot of people are still very cautious about putting card details on the web. Those who like to pay cash could still do


so and get the price benefits of the web. The retailer would be an expert on the best price available over the web. Im not clear where the retailer makes a profit. In fact Ive seen it suggested that they would be commission salesmen with the store costs borne by the brands they have available for trial. However it can be made to work, this


model has some clear benefits: it opens up internet shopping to everyone including those who dont have access to a computer; it solves the payment issue; it enables trial and that is the biggest weakness of internet shopping.


The fundamental truth is that people still like shopping. It’s a gregarious, fun activity. Everybody involved has to think customer and think fun and again I think a lot of the pleasure has been leeched out of shops and high streets in general.


www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk May 2013 | 23 |


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