LEISURE AND RETAIL


THE NEW AGE OF RETAIL CLEANING


The rise of online shopping has forced shopping centres everywhere to up their game and offer an enhanced customer experience. But how does this effect the cleaning challenge? Essity’s Stuart Hands reports.


Going to the shops has become a thing of the past for some. People who would once visit the high street or retail centre to buy items such as books, CDs and DVDs now make such purchases online – or simply download them.


Meanwhile, web-based grocery shopping has removed the need for us to steer our overflowing trolleys through congested supermarket aisles. These days our groceries are picked out by the store’s own staff and delivered to our door.


It is even becoming increasingly common to purchase clothing online. Clothes shopping remained the key reason for visiting a retail complex for people who prefer to see, feel and try on outfits before making a purchase. But online companies are making web-buying more attractive all the time.


For example, major online clothing retailers such as ASOS ensure that customers can return their purchases


48 | TOMORROW’S FM


quickly and easily – and at no cost to them – if they are not satisfied. In June this year, ASOS made online clothes shopping even more attractive by launching a Virtual Catwalk app.


This enables customers to view an augmented reality figure modelling any item they are considering buying. Besides being potentially useful, this is also a technological novelty that will make online retail even more appealing to those who find physical shopping a chore.


Shopping complexes are facing a considerable threat to their very existence. According to estates advisor the Altus Group, more than 20,000 shops have disappeared from retail centres since 2010 and have been converted into homes, restaurants or cafes - or demolished.


As a result, some retail outlets are left struggling for business with empty units and a diminishing footfall. But


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