Why sign up

Sign up for a unique package of ‘done for you’ solutions to make the most of this key trading period.

Within 1 week, you’ll get a lot. From detailed personalised reports about your target markets, competition, key differentiators and offerings to high impact new content and a full marketing plan to maximise sales over the coming months.   

You’ll also have access to an expert (who has experience building their own high street business) as well as huge discounts if you want to outsource anything in your new marketing plan. 

This is all available in November 2023 at an 80% discount to make high quality and high impact marketing work affordable for everyone trading from a high street, market or shopping centre.

Sign up today for £469 one-off (a discount of more than 80% from £2,600).

What you get

We will deliver solutions that:

• Identify the ideal target markets for your business
• Lay out the competitive differentiators of your business
• Define the unique offer that addresses your target market and write new content to make sure it’s compelling across your key marketing channels 
• Produce a marketing strategy to attract your target customers
• Create a personalised four-week campaign plan to achieve your most important goals

Your target market report:

In your target market report, you’ll get…

• Business concept and goals
• Market sector, key trends, opportunities and challenges
• Concept fit, strengths and risks 
• Target market, demographics, psychographics and behaviours
• Competitive target market assessment
• Target market segments
• Local market fit and viability
• Your online market

Here’s a snapshot of how we’ll break down your target customer segments…

Your competitor analysis report:

In your competitor analysis report, you’ll get…

• Evaluation of your business against competitive benchmark criteria
• A comparative analysis of your local independent competitors
• A comparative analysis of your local chain competitors
• A comparative analysis of your online competitors
• Ranking of your competitors
• Your competitive differentiators

Here’s a snapshot of how we’ll rank your competitors after analysing each of them…

Your unique offer report:

In your unique offer report, you’ll get…

• Definition of your unique value proposition
• Definition of your unique selling points
• Content for your online brand messaging for

• • Website “About Us” content 
  • Website “What Sets Us Apart” content 
  • Google Business Profile bio content 
  • Social media bios content

Here’s a snapshot of the copy we’ll write to communicate your unique offer…

Your marketing strategy:

In your marketing strategy, you’ll get…

• Define marketing goals
• Assess and prioritise relevant market methods such as:

• • Influencer Campaigns
  • In-store Events and Workshops
  • Loyalty Programs
  • Targeted Social Media Advertising
  • Personalised Email Campaigns
  • Collaborations with Local Businesses
  • Optimisation with Data Analytics
• Define marketing budget
• Measuring Your Marketing Performance

• • Campaign goals
  • Marketing Tracking Systems
  • The Importance of Return on Investment (ROI)

Here’s a snapshot summary of how we’ll build a marketing strategy for you…

Your marketing campaign plan:

In your marketing campaign plan you’ll get…

• Your campaign types:

• • Target customer
  • Campaign KPIs
  • Marketing goals
  • Marketing channels
• A four-week campaign plan across marketing channels

Here’s a snapshot of how we’ll build a marketing campaign plan for you…

All of this is available at a huge discount in November to help local independent businesses in the U.K. make the most of this key trading period. 

Sign up today for £469 one-off (a discount of more than 80% from £2,600).

What’s involved

Once you sign up, you’ll immediately be sent a link to a short survey about you and your business.

Once you complete this survey, we’ll set up a personalised planner for you and start implementing your marketing solutions right away. 

We work intensively and typically have deliverables for all the solutions including your personalised campaign plan ready for you to see within 5 business days. 

If we need any further information from you in this period we will be in touch and always focused on only what we need to get the job done to a high standard while saving you time. 

You’ll then have access to x2 booked calls with an expert Success Manager who has experience building their own business on the high street as well as supporting others like you. Together, you can review your new campaign plan and the deliverables on which it is based, defining practical action steps to achieve your marketing goals. 

More help is available later for everyone on this unique solutions package, always to a high standard and at a big discount to what’s available anywhere else. 

We deliver all this through JO, the first end-to-end support platform for high street businesses. JO exists to make it quicker, cheaper and easier to build successful businesses on the high street.

We’ve helped thousands of local businesses on high streets across the U.K, and this is just the beginning. We believe in a future of diverse thriving high streets led by local independents with the support they need to achieve their potential.

‘We’ve gone from strength to strength in spite of the huge challenges. So much has changed here and my sales have multiplied.’ – Kitchen Croxley

‘This has been a game-changer. They’ve given our business a fresh perspective with their accountability and top-notch advice.’ – Fixio

‘My experience has been transformational. Their team genuinely cares about my success, providing invaluable support.’ – The Homecrafters

The post Boost your marketing impact within 1 week, at an 80% discount! first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

Members of our Retailer Advisory Board, as well as representatives from industry leading retail companies, met to discuss the modern high street at our High Street Conference. The panel discussed topics near and dear to UK independents, such as the importance of data in retail and the opportunities for getting discovered on the high street. The panel also elaborated on the options that retailers have, to aid them in fulfilling their customers’ needs and growing their business. Far from the usual doom-and-gloom that we hear about the high street, this panel of retailers and industry leaders show real confidence in the future of UK independent retail.

So what can we learn from this discussion?

This panel was very information rich. There’s an awful lot that independent shopkeepers can learn from this discussion. Our panellists had a lot to say about data, discovery and fulfilment. Modern retailers need to understand and optimise their business, in each of these three areas, if they’re going to stay competitive on the high street. There’s a lot to learn about the use of data, the factors influencing discovery and the tools that exist to aid retailers in fulfilling orders. So what are some of the key points to take away from this discussion?

Data can help you understand (and target) your customers

Successful modern retail is data-driven. Retailers gather experience selling to their customers. They understand what people buy. When in the year, the week, or the day they make their purchases. There’s a lot that can be understood about a business, through experience. But it certainly helps to have some numbers and statistics to back the numbers up. In the panel discussion, our Retailer Advisory Board members talk about the effect that installing an EPOS system had on their company. EPOS systems allow retailers to track their sales and stock and can provide data analytics on these areas of business. With this data, shopkeepers can have numbers and stats to inform and support their decisions going forward.

Similarly, customer data offers the opportunity, in advertising, to better target customers. Integrating data from sources such as your website or EPOS system, to inform your advertising, you can optimise to target only the kind of consumer that’s looking for your products. Modern marketing isn’t about mass-reach. You don’t need to hit millions of uninterested to people to sell your products. You need to target the interested few, that are going to be enticed into your store, by your advertising. Using data to make your advertising more effective means your marketing budget can go further.

The role of the web in discovery

It’s one of the biggest issues of modern retail; can the internet really help you get more customers? And the answer, from members of our Retailer Advisory Board, is yes, but you’ll have to put in the effort to make it work. The internet is like a great theatre, full of performances and with an audience of millions. You can’t just turn up and expect to be an overnight hit. You’ve got to put in the work to attract an audience and engage your viewers, to keep them coming back. Rowena Howie, of Revival Retro Boutique, talks about how she grew her Instagram following into the tens of thousands, and is seeing the growth it’s given her bricks-and-mortar business. Similarly, Simon England, of The London Cycle Workshop, speaks about how blog posts, on their website, keep customers engaged online. In the end, it’s this sort of engagement that will convert website visitors into in-store customers.

The demand for convenience and options for fulfilment

Consumers today have very high expectations of retailers. Every big chain is offering delivery these days. Most offer click-and-collect too. If independents are going to stay competitive, they need to meet their customer’s expectations of convenience. Fortunately, there are plenty of options for independents to get started offering greater convenience and fulfilling their customers needs. For example, delivery services (such as CitySprint Health and Urb-it, who took part in the discussion above) are expanding their reach all over the country, making it easier and easier for independents to offer convenient delivery for their customers, wherever they may be. Meanwhile, advances in the field of payments technology are allowing retailers to offer ever more convenient forms of payment. With the advent of contactless payments and even phone payments technology, you can bring in more customers by accepting whatever payments they’d prefer to make.

There’s an awful lot more we can learn from our retailers and industry leaders. There’s a lot that we couldn’t fit in this video, or this article. So make sure to stay tuned for more discussions, debates and independent retail stories from our conference!

If you have any thoughts or questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

And don’t forget to check out our partners’ special offers on all things retail, on our special offers page.

The post Retailers and Industry Leaders Talk Data, Discovery and Fulfilment in UK Retail first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

Urb-it are a fresh take on express delivery, currently operating in central London. With Urb-it, your deliveries are made by ‘Urbers’, a community of enthusiasts who take your products by foot, bike or public transport to your customers. This allows you to offer the convenience of express delivery to your customers in an eco-friendly, ethical manner.

We caught up with Neville James, the managing director of Urb-it, at our High Street Conference, to talk about his tips for high street retailers.

Tips for Modern Retail From Express Delivery Service Urb-it

Neville James touches on some important points for retailers, not just about express delivery, but about understanding your customers and meeting their needs. It’s important to be able to offer things like express delivery for your customers. But it’s also important to make sure everything you offer is working in-sync to give the best possible experience for your customers. Your sales, marketing, data collection and in-store experience should all complement and inform one-another. By connecting the workings of your shop and your marketing strategies like this, you can maximise their effectiveness.

Neville James is working on bringing Urb-it’s brand of alternative, eco-friendly, community-driven express deliveries to retailers across London. If you think Urb-it could be the perfect delivery service for your shop, make sure to check out our special offer on Urb-it deliveries and get your first two months commission free!

If you have any questions at all, about express delivery for your shop, feel free to get in touch.

The post Top Tips: Express Delivery with Urb-it first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

On-demand delivery is an important issue for modern shoppers. Customers expect a convenient, friction-less shopping experience and giving them the option to receive their purchases ASAP is a great way to give consumers the sort of shopping experience that will leave a positive impression and keep them coming back. But don’t just take our word for it; we spoke to Julia of Totally Swedish about on-demand delivery service Urb-it, which they use in their store.

Totally Swedish were one of the first retailers to use the Urb-it app. Since then, they’ve noticed the growth of the on-demand service. They’ve also noticed a rise in customers, as on-demand services become a more common part of life. As Julia shows, the service is simple enough to get set up on. Once you’re ready, you can start offering your customers the option for on-demand delivery. You might even start seeing a rise in customers that found you on the Urb-it app and have decided to come in and see your shop for themselves.

Do Customers Really Care About On-Demand Delivery?

Well, as it happens, most customers do. In fact, many shoppers could even be persuaded to make a purchase, that they otherwise wouldn’t have, with the option of on-demand delivery. According to this Future of Retail survey, by Walker Sands, 49% of customers would be more likely to make a purchase, if they were offered the option of on-demand delivery. This isn’t just a bonus feature, this is something that can really drive sales. It could be the difference between an interested customer and a successful sale.

Be sure to check out this article, written by Frederick Killander of Urb-it, on the myths surrounding on-demand delivery.

Also have a look at our special offer, from Urb-it, to London based retailers; sign up now and get your first two months of deliveries commission-free!

The post On-Demand Delivery Made Easy first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

All ambitious retailers know that no matter how large your domestic market may be, it’s just a drop in the ocean. There’s a whole world of consumers out there. A whole world of shoppers searching for the right products for them. It’s a big market, but it can be tough to break into. It means competing with the world’s biggest brands. It also means competing with all the small independents, around the world, whose business you’ll be taking overseas. You need to be able to stand out from the crowd and grab the attention of international consumers.

Fortunately, as an independent, you have a bit of an advantage in this regard. You’re already unique. Already distinct from the big chains. Independents have a lot of potential to turn heads and grab the attention of international consumers. And the more unique your shop is, the more potential you have just waiting to be unleashed on the world.

The Power of Individuality

People are constantly creating, viewing and sharing content online. There are huge websites, like Tumblr and Pinterest, that act as a sort of gallery for this content and receive millions of views each day. Users cast judgement on the content they’re viewing. They ‘like’, or ‘share’, or ‘up-vote’ content that they like and ignore, or even ‘down-vote’ content they dislike. This means that only the most interesting and unique content rises to the top of the pile. If there’s something that really sets your shop out from the crowd you could reach thousands of people all over the world. No matter what their marketing budget may be, big chain stores can’t buy that sort of reach. Only genuine uniqueness can.

This is a huge advantage for independent retailers. You’re one of a kind. You aren’t just another chain store. It gives your business personality, something that big companies try to cultivate over many years of marketing and PR, on budgets most independents could only dream of. It’s so important because getting discovered, internationally, is about standing out from the crowd. You need something that makes you special. Something that will make people share your products to their friends and family. This is how you’ll spread the word, get discovered and start making sales internationally.

But What About the Shipping?

Of course, once you’ve been discovered and people have started buying, you need to be able to get your products to them. This means international shipping. This is where a lot of independents stop before they’ve even gotten started. A lot of retailers assume that international shipping and sales are reserved for the big chains. While this may have been true in the past, modern international shipping is much more independent-friendly.

There are plenty of shipping companies that are happy to handle small packages. Check out Inter Parcel, who give quotes on different delivery companies and the cost of shipping with them. A 3kg, 40cm by 40cm by 20cm parcel costs £10 to France, £20 to Estonia, £25 to the US and £45 to Japan. For one of a kind, unique products, these prices won’t be a barrier to your customers.

The shipping times are also far better than you might have expected. The shortest is 4 days to France, the longest is 10 days to Japan. This means your customers won’t have to wait too long to receive their wonderfully enticing orders. Which is one of the biggest obstacles to international purchases. No one wants to wait months for their order, but a few days? That won’t be a problem.

Why not give it a try?

By delivering all over the world you can tap into a much larger market of consumers. But on top of this, you’re reaching market that might not have seen a shop like yours again. With the costs covered from the other side, there’s no reason not to give it a go. And who knows? Maybe your products will really take off overseas. You could find that folks in South Korea, or Chile, or Indonesia are huge fans of whatever you sell.

If you’d like to know more about international shipping, or you have any questions, please let us know!

The post Sell Your Products All Over the World 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.

Urb-it lets customers shop on their mobile through an array of London’s boutique retailers and have their purchases brought to them by an ‘Urber’ at a time and location of their choice. With over a hundred ‘Urbers’ on-hand in London and growing, purchases aim to be collected and handed over within an hour, which means no waiting for a delivery or worrying about Click&Collect.

Urb-it’s fully trained ‘Urbers’ collect and handover using only public transport and their feet, meaning there is zero environmental impact from the collection and handover process. It’s a completely green way of bringing on-demand delivery to your business.

It’s like having your own app, all of your products will be featured at the touch of a fingertip.

And the best part is the first two months are commission-free, exclusively for SaveTheHighStreet.org!

After the first two months, commissions are agreed upon with retailers for each sale made through the Urb-it app and the customer paying the Urber charge of £9.99

The post London Retailers: On-Demand Delivery with Urb-it – 2 Months Commission Free first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

The explosion of e-Commerce and m-Commerce to meet the ever more exacting demands of today’s customers can be a daunting prospect. How do we even find out what online customers want? Won’t selling on apps reduce my footfall? Isn’t it very expensive and complicated to set up? Each of these is a valid concern but all have simple answers.

It goes without saying that customers want convenience. As a society we are becoming more impatient and impulsive; with On-Demand TV, instant messaging and social media, retail has been the snail in the race. In comparison, traditional e-commerce seems almost Victorian: I am talking about 3-4 day delivery from across the country and parcels being thrown over fences. Some lucky customers can even pick a 4 hour time slot in which the courier might arrive but they still have to wait around at home for a man in a van to thrust something at them (and hurry on to the next delivery.) This is no longer good enough! Customers want more. They want a better, more convenient online experience. Understanding this has been instrumental to the success of online giants such as Amazon, ASOS and Net-a-Porter.

Common myths surrounding on-demand retail

The first great myth is that selling with On-Demand services will impinge on your footfall. This is not the case. Those customers who have time to come to your shop, browse, explore and purchase will continue to do so. From our experience purchases are attributed to another category of shopper. The best category – the NEW shopper.  On-Demand services work to put your products in front of new customers. Those that are yet to discover your brand or too busy to reach your shop. Furthermore, every time a product is collected from your shop, that delivery person is also a potential customer. They themselves may see something they like and purchase. So for every On-Demand sale you are actually reaching two new customers. It’s a win-win.

The second misconception is that setup is expensive and complicated. This certainly does not have to be the case. The costs typically come as a CPA – a commission based on actual sales rather than any membership or signup fee. With regards to the technical setup I can only speak for Urb-it where we need just name, price, description and an image to get you started.

So what can you do?

Well, keep doing what you’re doing. Keep creating beautiful products, a strong brand, a personal customer experience. Just extend this personal service online. When a customer comes into your brick and mortar shop you meet them face to face, build a personal relationship, an understanding of what they want and suggest products to suit them. The problem with e-Commerce is that you lose this personal interaction, the ability to engage directly with the customer. This is why the last mile and fulfilment has become so critical. It becomes their lasting impression of your brand, so make it personal.

We, at Urb-it, hold the customer experience sacrosanct – nothing is more important to us! Our customers buy online or through our app from their favourite retailers. They choose exactly when and where to receive their shopping with our green last mile. They are met by our trained eco-couriers called Urbers who, having travelled across the city by bike or public transport, bring the in-store shopping experience to your customers – putting a smiling face and personality into the last mile. We work with our retail partners to personalise each handover, learning about the brand and the products they sell. We can then promote them online and within our community.

Written by Frederick Killander, Business Development at Urb-it.

Read more articles on modern retail from the Industry Standards.

Get in touch with our team to ask, learn and teach us about your retail experience.

The post Urb-it: Busting the Myths Around On-demand Delivery first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

Alex Schlagman takes us through examples of how retailers can meet these demands and come up with new innovative ways of doing so.

Alex Schlagman is the Co-founder of Save The High Street and on a mission to reinvent and revive bricks & mortar retailing everywhere. From here on, you can follow him on Twitter here. And you can see his other video about “Selling online to local shoppers”, here.

Last but not least, join Save The High Street Movement now: https://savethehighstreet.org/join-the-movement

Be part of the Retail Advisory Board: https://savethehighstreet.org/retailer-advisory-board

Please leave us a comment if you had any thoughts and in the meantime don’t forget to like and subscribe our Youtube channel.

The post Massive Benefit When Offering Click and Collect first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.

Adapting to customers needs will keep them happy and keep businesses thriving. We spoke to powerful business duo Isaac Lilos and Hartwig Braun about they fulfil their customer’s needs by staying updated online which allows them to purchase from all over the world.

‘By the retailer, For the retailer’ are tips and advice shared within the independent business community, to help all retailers adapt to the digitally enhancing world we live. Subscribe to our channel for more recommendations and retailer talks vlogs.

Join the movement:
https://savethehighstreet.org/joi…

Be part of the Retail Advisory Board:
https://savethehighstreet.org/ret…

Don’t forget to like, comment, share and subscribe!

Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-…

The post Retailer Talks – Fulfilling Your Customers Needs first appeared on Savethehighstreet.org.