what are the big predictions for the future of retail?

Retail stores represent where and how we shop. Now we have options to carry out the same task. Here we explore what is the role of a retail store now and in the near future.

Stores are therefore not merely transactional but where customers experience a brand. That includes many touch points along the customer journey, on and offline with various combinations of engaging activities – through social media, e-commerce, browsing, shopping for the fun of it, going for customer service, collecting, or returning purchases, spending time with family and friends, attending events and more.

Activities other than shopping; discovering or learning something new and feeling a sense of community.

Good store design and visual merchandising were never just about designing a purely transactional environment. As designers and merchandisers, we always delivered stores that physically manifested a brand and presented the client’s products and services most appropriately, always considering all the senses.

Stores were originally designed to display products and facilitate customer services

Seating areas, cafes, gift wrapping, and delivery services are by no means anything new. The introduction of technology was another form of display, replacing static images and offering some digital interaction. Other technologies such as augmented reality are still evolving but can it be better than trying an item on and seeing hot it firs, looks, and feels? Especially when already in a store? There is an opportunity for technology to be more than gimmicky and relevant to the in-store experience.

AI could replace salespeople, but it begs the question; what are the benefits of going to a physical store?

Technology can eventually make shopping at home or anywhere other than a store seamless, easy, and fun. So, if the store wants to be relevant, it must be more of an experience than technology can offer. On a positive note, AI could help salespeople deliver a better, more personalised shopping experience and help with many aspects of retail operations.

Predictive analytics can help business owners order the right amount of stock so that stores won’t end up with too much or too little. AI can also track data from online channels, informing better e-commerce strategies.

Humans, as social animals, may continue to want face-to-face and real-life interaction. That is what the store can offer. It will just be one part of a brand experience and be that place where human interaction builds brand loyalty.

The future of a retail store: what are the main factors?

So, the design and overall presentation of a store will be more about designing for these interactions and experiences on top of the product display and services customers need. Efficiently and effectively utilising space will be a challenge as experiential areas will not always be used. Flexibility and modularity may be needed to quickly change space usage.

Store design and VM could be more wasteful. New stores are being built and renovated. and pop-ups are trying to keep up with trends and stay ahead of the competition, leading to a lot of waste. Sustainability is not just a greenwashing trend but a necessity and will be the norm. And it’s a costly material choice. The more it is widely adopted, the more the prices will come down; however,  sustainability and our responsibility to the environment will be more demanding, meaning brands must align their values on this issue.

On a final note

All this leads to one central point, the customer and how they want to shop and interact with brands. Retail has and will continually adapt to their needs and desires. Some retailers will lead the way, and most will just follow, but in the end, attracting and keeping customers returning will be at the root of store design for the foreseeable future. The role of a retail store will evolve as consumer expectations shift and change.

If you enjoyed this article, find more to read via SavetheHighStreet website. If you want to get in touch, complete the form below or send an email to: partners@savethehighstreet.org.

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Last week, we announced that AbayaTopia, Kidwise and DanTheBikeMan would be launching their winning start-up ideas in retail spaces across Hounslow. 

Since then, we’re excited to say that all three pop-ups are now open and welcoming local customers through their brand-new doors. 

But how did our winners find the challenge of turning their big ideas into a reality?

And how did the team behind Save The High Street Hounslow manage to make it all happen?

Let’s find out. 

Dan Barnett of DanTheBikeMan at The Centre Feltham 

Dan runs a mobile mechanic service for local cyclists in Hounslow but entered our competition to test his idea for a fixed workshop on the high street. 

Here’s what he had to say about bringing this idea to life at The Centre Feltham: 

“Goodness gracious me. First it was sheer excitement… then I felt slightly overwhelmed! But once the space was set up, I chilled out and went back to normal again. Having my own space is miles better and demonstrates that this is where my business needs to go. It’s invaluable. I am a doer kind of guy. I am happy and content. Everything I wanted to happen has happened and I’m chuffed!”

Zeenat Choudhury of AbayaTopia at The Treaty Centre 

Zeenat entered our competition to launch her very first physical pop-up at The Treaty Centre for her leading online modest fashion brand, AbayaTopia.  

How did she react when we announced her as one of our winners?

“I was very excited and surprised to find out I had won. Then it became overwhelming with all that I had to do. I was nervous the day before the opening, as so much needed to be ready, like the till system. But once we opened, I felt very happy as a lot of customers came in. There was even a queue outside! Customers have been saying that Hounslow needs a shop like this. Feedback has been really positive and that makes me feel really happy.”

Sumera Kidwai of Kidwise at Hounslow House

Sumera is a qualified science teacher and has long wanted to bring science to the high street in her vision for a kid-friendly science lab where children and their families can learn about science in a fun, interactive and hands-on way. 

As one of our winners, we helped Sumera launch Kidwise at Hounslow House to put this idea to the test for the very first time. 

How has she found the whole experience so far? 

“This concept has been cooking in my head for a long time, and to be given the opportunity to bring this to life was not just a business idea come true but a dream come true, too. The turnaround was a whirlwind but I was given so much support and encouragement. 

On the day of the announcement, my husband, who has been my support system, wrote my speech. He is going on this journey with me and I am so grateful.  Seeing the space set up was a wow moment for me. To see my logo printed and displayed in prestigious Hounslow House was an emotional experience. I look forward to being part of the local children’s science journey.”

And how did we manage to launch three businesses so quickly?

Funded by the Central Government Additional Restrictions Grant, everyone here at SaveTheHighStreet.org and Hounslow Council pulled together and made the impossible possible! From Success Managers to designers, we all worked together to bring our brilliant winners’ ideas to life… all in what felt like, and very well could be, record-breaking time!

Each winner was given 1-to-1 time with The Success Team behind Jo — the unique business support platform by SaveTheHighStreet.org — which gave them the guidance and expertise they needed to launch successfully on the high street.

At the centre of this exciting project, though, was John Abbate, Customer Experience Lead here at SaveTheHighStreet.org. 

John worked closely with our winners on-the-ground in Hounslow, using his years of experience as one of the UK’s leading visual merchandisers to turn three vacant units into impressive, customer-first spaces that exceeded all expectations in less than two weeks. 

Here’s what John had to say about the experience: 

“We didn’t want these pop ups to look like pop ups. We wanted them to look like how our winners visualised them in their dreams. We had just two weeks to come up with a concept that fit the locations, source furniture and displays, and set up each pop-up. All with limited resources, money and time. 

Within just 3 days, a pile of materials and furniture that needed to be assembled was transformed, with a little bit of our help, into the brilliant visions of our three winners. Their doors are now open, they’re learning how to sell face to face to their customers and they now have a home for their business that’ll be the testing ground and launch pad for their futures.” 

And now, it’s over to you… 

Are you a local customer in Hounslow? 

Pop into the The Treaty Centre, Hounslow House or The Centre Feltham and show your support to one (or all!) of our winners in the borough. 

Click on the links below to find out more about each business: 

AbayaTopia at The Treaty Centre

Kidwise at Hounslow House

DanTheBikeMan The Centre Feltham 

The post The Hounslow high street start-up competition: what happened next… first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

The high street is dead. Long live the high street!

On December 5th, I authored this article about the future of the high street in The Telegraph’s weekend supplement.

Covid-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to our town, city, village, market and shopping centres.

It is also forcing the transition to a more intelligent, collaborative, dynamic and sustainable future high street.

We call this ‘High Street 3.0’ and it is now emerging quickly, creating new opportunities for wealth creation and social impact everywhere.

Do you want to play a role in this reinvention and revival of the high street too? We want to hear from you

#SaveTheHighStreet
#HighStreet3.0

Published in Telegraph Spark 5 December 2020

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The twenties are here! New technologies, urgent global issues, and a move back to our local communities will bring both new opportunities as well as threats to high street businesses over the coming years. If we want the high street to flourish in the next decade, we need to make sure independent business owners don’t get left behind.

You can find out how well prepared your business is to achieve its potential in 2020 by taking our High Street Health Check survey.

With good foundations in place, these top 5 trends and predictions for 2020 will be sure to set your business ahead of the rest! 

1. Conscious consumers will spend extra time, effort and money on finding and supporting ethical brands

Climate change is a serious issue, and consumers are becoming more aware of the impact their habits make on the environment. As carbon footprints, working conditions and labour standards are exposed, consumers are going out of their way to make ethical choices and support businesses whose morals match their own.

As consumers demand more transparency, businesses who remain opaque will no longer be able to get away with hiding any horrors in their supply chain or taking part in damaging environmental procedures.

Being open with your community can build lasting trust in your business as well as establishing your brand as a forerunner in the movement towards sustainable shopping.

2. Being seen on many channels online will be vitally important for businesses

Omnichannel retail refers to selling products and services across an array of channels, from branded websites, marketplaces and physical stores to social media and ecommerce sites.

Making the most of all channels means that your brand is exposed to more potential customers who can then, if they like, purchase your products and services with less friction than before. Instead of having to physically travel to your shop, or even to find your website, you can now reach them where they are, creating a well-rounded user journey.

One thing to keep in mind with this approach is that no one channel is more or less important than the others. A physical store or showroom is important for customer interaction in order to build trust, a website improves customer convenience and accessibility, and selling across social channels is quick and taps into shopping via recommendations from friends or trusted influencers.

3. Physical shops will have to get experiential to bring people through the doors

With more and more people shopping online, it will become a necessity for businesses to use their physical stores in an exciting way, offering something experiential and entertaining that simply cannot be offered online.

Creating something experiential, such as an interactive display, or hosting workshops and events, will transform the way customers interact with your business whilst creating a buzz around your brand.

4. Direct shopping via social media will significantly increase sales

As you expand your online presence, it’s worth making the most of social media as a shopping channel and not merely as a marketing tool. Creating shoppable posts makes the process of finding and buying your products much easier, with 41% of ecommerce brands using this feature on Instagram in the last year.

Receiving recommendations from trusted people, such as family and friends, is the number one way to sway a new customer when they’re deciding whether to shop with you. Now, thanks to social media, many people feel close to influencers – such as celebrities, bloggers and others – and trust their judgement, meaning that consumers are likely to shop directly from social channels when products appear in their feeds.

Partnering with influencers, both well-known and local, can help you reach more consumers in a trusted way. Even using paid media techniques to promote your shoppable products directly to the feeds of your target audience will make a big impact on the reach of your brand!

5. SMS will make a comeback as a new marketing method

Although most people have moved from SMS text messaging to social media channels like Whatsapp, Telegram and Snapchat, the role of SMS messaging is undergoing a revolution.

Sharing updates about product releases, news, or special sales via text message is set to be more effective than emails with a potential 98% open rate. Adding links to those messages makes it even easier for your customers to shop directly from mobile, taking them directly to your ecommerce store with applied promotional codes and suggested favourites. This is much better than emails which have an average open rate of 20%!</p>

You can find out more about each of these trends, as well as 15 other key trends for 2020 and lots of other personalised support by joining Jo at JoinJo.com.

Jo was created by SaveTheHighStreet.org to give everyone on the high street the best chance of achieving their potential.

The post 5 Top Trends for 2020! first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

These days everything is interactive. With the rising prominence of touch-screen technology, modern shoppers are expecting to be able to interact with any screens they come across. This level of interactivity has become the norm. Whether we’re using self-service checkouts and kiosks, or consulting touch-screen displays that layout the map of a shopping centre, or even interacting with touch-screen retail displays. These digital displays are something a lot of larger stores have been implementing, over the last few years, to help customers engage with their products. But this advance in retail technology isn’t just for the chains. This is something independents could use to even greater effect.

But why should you care about interactive, digital displays? What could they do for your customer experience? Well, rather a lot, actually.

They Command Attention

Interactive displays are visually appealing. They aren’t static, boring old pictures on your shop wall. Movement grabs the eye and the telltale signs of interactivity (such as on-screen buttons and flashing icons) draw their attention. Customers can’t help but come closer and learn more. It creates that first sense of curiosity in their minds which makes them want to find out more, all with your lovely products on display.

They engage customers

Remember, engagement is what brings sales. A customer might take a passing interest in your store, but unless they engage with your products, you might not be able to sell them anything. With interactive retail displays, creating engagement is a whole lot easier. If your customers can interact with your products, they’ll be more invested in their shopping experience and more likely to buy.

Another thing to consider here is the effect interactive tech can have on how comfortable a customer might be in their shopping experience. Some shoppers prefer to deal with machines. It’s why self-checkouts in supermarkets are taking over. Many shoppers are oddly shy about asking shopkeepers about their products. This means that if they’re interested, but unsure of what they want, they might not ask you or your employees for assistance and may leave without a purchase. Having interactive displays lets customers search for themselves.

Digital Displays Make More of an Impression

Interactivity and visualization. That’s what digital displays are for. They allow for greater engagement through interactivity, but while your customers are interacting with the display they’ll be focusing on the image of your products on screen. This helps to create a lasting impact on shoppers, creating a lasting memory. Leaving this greater impression on your customers will make them more likely to come back to your store in future. On top of this, lasting impressions will also make your customers more likely to talk about your products with their friends.

If you have any thoughts or questions about digital displays, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

The post What can Interactive Digital Displays do for Your Store? first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

Click and collect lets customers order online and collect in store. It’s a great way to bridge the online-offline divide. It gives your customers the convenience of browsing your wares online, from the comfort of their own homes, while also bringing those customers into your shop. Your customers will experience your physical, bricks-and-mortar shop and they’ll walk past all your lovely products as they go to collect their purchase. This system is a win-win for both customers and retailers. It gives customers the convenience of shopping online, without sacrificing the in-store shopping experience.

This is great for your existing customers, but it can also be good for bringing in new customers. There are shoppers who aren’t sure they want to visit a shop’s physical store. Maybe it’s a long trip and the consumer doesn’t want to travel if they aren’t guaranteed to buy anything. Maybe they work weekdays and weekends and there’s no convenient time for a nice long shop. With ecommerce and click and collect, customers can know for certain that the journey is worth it. And if they can only pop in for a moment? No problem, they’ve already decided what they want, they won’t need to have a long look around. Once they’re in-store of course, they might find something else they hadn’t considered. Something they didn’t look at online, but has caught their eye now that they’re in to collect.

Alternative to Shipping Charges

The great retail paradox is that customers want the highest quality products, but at the cheapest possible price. Shipping costs can cause customers to hesitate. Especially on smaller purchases, where shipping can double the cost of the product, and larger orders, where shipping can escalate in price very quickly. Offering click and collect eliminates this awkward cost of delivery.

Click and collect can also be faster than delivery. It might seem strange, but it’s true! The standard time-frame for a small delivery is 3-5 days, with next-day delivery coming at an uncomfortable premium. With click and collect, your customers can drop by to pick up their purchase as soon as you accept the order. This means same-day delivery (of sorts) for customers that are likely to be passing by anyway.

If you’d like to learn more about click and collect, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team here.

Read our article about the benefits of e-commerce and see how you can get online retail to bring more customers into your shop.

The post What Click and Collect Can Do for Your Customers first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

There’s no doubt that the world is addicted to the internet. Many people are connected to the net all day, every day. This is something that some business owners are leveraging to their advantage. Many business owners focus on customer satisfaction as one of the major keys to success, yet so often these same business owners turn their nose up at public wifi. It offers a convenient line to friends, family and the internet at large. Customers don’t want to be disconnected when they walk into your shop and the recent market research suggests that customers spend more time, and money, in shops that let them stay connected. It’s not surprising that free wifi has been incorporated in many big chain businesses. But independents are missing out.

Here are three reasons why free wifi can really help your in-store experience, bring in more customers and keep them happy.

Attract More Customers

Having an internet connection makes people feel more comfortable. Customers will feel more at home in a store that doesn’t break their connection to the web, to their friends and family. It’s no surprise that customers tend to stay longer in places where free Wi-Fi is offered. Comfortable customers are also more likely to recommend you to their friends. This means more foot traffic into your business and more happy customers to continue the good word of mouth to other shoppers.

Another Means of Marketing

Something that isn’t often thought about with public wifi is the mechanism by which your customers sign in to your wifi. Some wiifi providers let you customise a landing page for your business. This lets you show different real-time offers to customers as they’re signing in. This is another dimension to your marketing you can use to show shoppers the products they might have missed walking around your shop. You can even use your wifi service to complement your in-store experience, expanding your marketing space for customers that use your public wifi.

Let Your Customers Spread the Word

With access to wifi in your shop, your customers will be able to connect with their friends, family and the random strangers that they’ve added on Facebook. This means they’ll be talking to all these people while they’re inside your shop, surrounded by your products. Letting your customers talk to their friends while they’re in your shop means you’re letting them talk about you. You’re letting them share photos of your products to their social media. You’re letting them spread the word about your shop. And what’s more, if they’re in your shop, they probably fit your customer profile. This means their friends, that they’ll be spreading the to, are also likely to be your kind of customer.

Check out our article on public wifi, featuring XLN, one of the UKs foremost public wifi providers.

Have a look at our special offer on public wifi for your shop.

If you have any questions or thoughts on public wifi, get in touch with us here.

The post What Free Wifi Can Do For Your In-Store Experience first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

The internet is for everyone. While there are certain groups of people that are more internet-active than others, everyone is online these days. By selling online, you open your shop up to a huge market of people from all walks of life. The internet is the biggest market of shoppers in history. By connecting with this incredible marketplace, you can grow sales and your customer base to a far greater degree than if you only exist offline. Once you’re “e-commerce” enabled, you can sell well beyond the borders of your usual consumer base.

And really this is one of the biggest advantages to e-commerce. You aren’t limited by your physical shop. Are you in a bit of a poky, hard to reach location? Not a problem online. Do you have a narrow storefront, overshadowed by larger shops on either side? Your online storefront has no such problems. This is one of the ways that e-commerce can help you level the playing field with big chains.

Of course, this isn’t to say that e-commerce is easy. And at the end of the day, it’s got to be your decision, for your shop. But below we’ve listed a few ways that e-commerce can help you grow your business, to help you see what e-commerce can do for you.

E-Commerce Improves Availability

All brick-and-mortar shops have an opening time and a closing time. Some big chains can stay open all-day, but this takes a big staff that most independents can’t afford to maintain. This means that there are long periods of time each day (or more accurately each night) when you aren’t selling. And these days more and more people are getting online, in the later hours of the day, and browsing products from the comfort of their own homes. Using e-commerce eliminates the limitation of ‘open hours’ as it remains open 24/7, letting shoppers shop at their own convenience.

Unlimited Customer Reach

Whatever you put on the internet is for the world to see. Unlike physical stores that are limited to their physical area, e-commerce has no such limitation to how wide your customer reach can be. E-commerce provides increased visibility and sales by letting everyone that’s looking for your products online find you. Even when you’re targeting a niche audience, you’re guaranteed to expand beyond your shop’s physical area. And since shoppers don’t have to make it to your shop to browse your products, you’ll be gaining loyal customers across the country. Shoppers a hundred miles away will be browsing your products from the comfort of their own beds. Which brings us to what, for most consumers, is the best part of e-commerce.

Easy, Convenient Purchases

Shopping online is convenient. That’s its real strength. There are plenty of downsides to shopping online, like having to buy a product without actually seeing it in person and without being able to talk to a shop assistant if you have any special wants or requirements. It’s also lacking the personal touch of the in-store experience and you don’t get any of the atmosphere or community that a physical shop might have. But by God is it more convenient.

It’s more convenient for customers to stay at home and place an order from the comfort of their bed, rather than travelling all the way out to a store. There’s no waiting in line and you don’t need any cash either. With recent advances in in-browser information storage, you don’t even have to enter your card deals separately for every purchase. Every product you could ever want to buy is just a few clicks away. E-commerce skips the stress of pushing a shopping cart and looking for the product everywhere in the store. It lets you find what you’re looking for via a search function, so you don’t have to wonder through all the products you aren’t interested in.

So Why Not Give it a Try?

At the end of the day, e-commerce is a great opportunity to facilitate sales. It’s a great way to just let your customers buy. Let them browse from home, even if they live far away, or are usually too busy to shop. Let them buy with a few clicks of their mouse and a few taps of the keyboard. Let your customers shop the way they want to shop and you’ll see your sales grow. You might also see your footfall rise with your sales. A little online notoriety can bring customers in and if someone made a purchase, who wouldn’t otherwise have found you, or wouldn’t have been willing to travel out to your shop, you might find that happy customer visiting you in-store in future.

If you have any questions about e-commerce or getting online, feel free to get in touch!

The post What e-commerce can do to help grow your business first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

“Consumers want Wifi on the High Street, for the same reason as we want it at home. It’s almost like a God-given right”

The world has changed a lot since the creation of the internet. The modern consumer all-but lives online. Even while shoppers are walking around your store they want to access the net. Customers want to be able to send and receive messages from their friends. They want to be able to check their social media and emails. It’s something modern shoppers are used to having at their fingertips and they don’t expect that to change when they step into your shop.

Some shoppers have jobs that require them to be accessible at all times, in case of emergency. Some shoppers have significant others that require them to be permanently connected online. Others are just addicted to social media and want to be able to post their every move, as they move. Giving these people access to the net means they don’t need to break their online connection to visit your shop.

For many other people though, it’s not so much that they need to check messages and send emails. Rather it’s lacking a connection that makes them uncomfortable. These shoppers won’t necessarily spend much time online, in your shop, but if they know they can’t they won’t be as comfortable in your shop.

Why do I want my customers to be comfortable? We’re a shop, not a spa

Comfortable customers will be in less of a hurry to leave. Which in turn means they’ll spend morecustomer experience money, as well as time, in your shop. Taking a longer look at your products, comfortable in your in-store experience. Meanwhile a customer that isn’t comfortable, or is raring to leave your shop so they can reconnect with their friends online, will spend less time, less money and be less likely to come back to your shop again. Comfortable customers are happy customers and happy customers become loyal customers.

And there are some hidden perks…

Give your customers internet access and what will they do? Statistically speaking they’ll be messaging their friends and browsing social media. Why is this a good thing? Because when they message their friends they’ll be talking about you. When they post on their Facebook they’ll be posting about you. When they take selfies and Snapchat with their friends, they’ll be spreading pictures of your shop, with your products all around them.

Giving your customers free wifi access might be the best social-media decision you ever make. It gives them the power to spread the word about you to all their friends and family on the internet. It lets your customers advertise your shop and your products. Even if someone takes a picture of an interesting product and doesn’t buy it. The friends that they share that picture with are all customers in waiting. You might find that a customer has posted about a product that isn’t quite their style, but they know someone it would be perfect for. These shoppers will send the picture to their friend and do as good a better job of marketing your product than any marketing scheme.

Check out this special offer on wifi from XLN, for SaveTheHighStreet.org members.

If you’d like to know more about what wifi can do for your shop, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The post Make Your Customers Feel at Home – Give Them Free Public Wifi first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

All retailers have customers they know and customers they don’t. There are customers who wander around the shop, browsing and talking and eventually buying. And there are customers who march in, make a purchase, and march back out again. Yet regardless of which group they fit into, these are all customers. They’re all part of your shop’s community. They all spend their money with you. They’re all interested in what you have to sell. But how do you keep them coming back? How do you keep them loyal?

Loyalty Problems and Solutions

There are plenty of strategies for driving loyalty. But most of these require you to keep contact with your shoppers, who don’t necessarily want to give up their contact info. Others require the use of a loyalty card, but no customer wants to carry a dozen different cards around, for all the shops they visit. CashbackAPP, seen in the above video, are a company that’s trying to deal with these problems. With loyalty rewards tied to their bank cards, customers don’t have to carry around a special loyalty card. Nor do you have to gather all their private contact info. You can simply let your customers buy your products with their bank card and you’ll both reap the rewards. It’s not just about loyalty either; making loyalty and rewards smooth for your shoppers also improves the customer experience.

Loyal customers will come back to your shop again and again. Spending their valuable time, and equally valuable money, at your shop, on your products. Loyal customers go much further to support their local stores than disinterested customers. If you can bring shoppers back in to your shop, whenever they’re out, you can build a community of dedicated, loyal customers. Which is a very powerful thing.

If there’s anything more you’d like to know about loyalty and rewards, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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