REVIEW


March 2022 ertonline.co.uk


‘The shopper is looking to be better informed nowadays’


Physical retail lends itself beautifully to showcase the products that people aspire to have in their homes, according to Gekko Managing Director, Dan Todaro. At Turning Point Live, he spoke about why consumers love shopping in store!


T


he electrical retail sector is very much a considered purchase sector and we are seeing trends go almost back to where we were in 2019. The British Retail Consortium reported that retail had lost £22 billion worth of sales during the worst part


of the pandemic, so that was a massive gap that everyone had to plug in very difficult circumstances. We obviously spent too much time at home during the lockdowns so


when people started going back out they were looking to be delighted and surprised – they didn’t want just the same retail. And I think that’s what we saw; this helped to increase retail sales and actually this was the shot in the arm that retailers needed to make a change. We saw significant changes in places like John Lewis and Currys, but


then also in the independents as well, as I witnessed at the ERT Awards judging last year – there have been some massive innovations in the independent sector.


Online and offline


The omni-channel approach is something that retailers really do need to embrace; if you’re still fearful of it then you’re in trouble. Offline and online complement each other immensely and as a retailer you’ll become a destination, even if it’s only as a click and collect point, that’s footfall into your store and that’s your opportunity to convert an individual from an online shopper to a physical shopper. It’s also about the research element; people may visit your website


and even if it’s not an e-commerce site if it is appealing enough it will encourage and push someone over the threshold and into your store. Then, of course, what they experience on your shop floor is absolutely critical to how you close that sale. It is so important that everyone understands that omni-channel really


is significant. It is something that everyone has to do. The multiples struggled in some respects because online business grew quicker than they anticipated during lockdown and they didn’t have the time or money to update their websites. But that’s something to capitalise on because the online world is not perfect and we have the opportunity now to make people realise that physical shopping is actually much nicer! We know that the majority of shoppers will research online so the


experience they get when they hit the shop floor really does have to be heightened now. People want the best customer service possible more than ever; they want somebody that is engaging and who understands their specific needs. Electrical retail stores need to reflect the new ways in which


consumers are thinking and how they live; for example, people have more areas in the home for watching TV on much bigger screens than perhaps two years ago. And physical retail lends itself beautifully to showcase these products and what people aspire to have in their homes. It’s all about experience zones where shoppers can actually sit in a living room setup or walk into a kitchen and actually see products in place and working. More and more store spaces now lend themselves to display as opposed to box stacking or physical fixtures.


15


The future


The future is definitely exciting! If you look at what brands are producing and how they are driving the industry forward; for example, in MDA there’s a big move towards efficiency so there’s a huge opportunity to look at the ways in which you can totally resell appliances within your store. The shopper is looking to be better informed nowadays; they are


looking for retailers to advise them on the provenance of a product, as people are really curious about the ethics of a brand and how they manufacture the product and how they package the product. You can also help people understand that spending more on a


product in the first place means they will save more on running costs in the long run. This has become so relevant now, especially for Gen Z, and retailers have to tap in to that because they need to be able to talk confidently to make the customer feel happy putting a certain product in their home.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44