The king is dead, long live the king!
I originally wrote this in January 2019. Just over a year later and the world of retail has been turned on its head by the coronavirus outbreak. It’s already becoming clear that we are likely to lose many more retailers as a result. For those that do survive these unprecedented times, the lessons learnt will become more important than ever. It really is the time to evolve and adapt.
Whilst no-one asked for it, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for every business. It’s an incredibly rare chance to get off of the treadmill, “take stock”, review and learn. To look at the bigger picture without the noise of the day to day. To be objective, pragmatic and honest about how the business is working, for better or worse.
The real question businesses need to ask, is how will we make the cost of it all worth it?
How retailers come out of this, is completely down to them. It is a unique chance to start again and re-align focus, because public opinion, interaction and experience with your brand or business has never been more critical.
“Survival of the fittest”, is about to get very real.
I believe that the message below is not only still relevant, but is probably more important than ever before.
Every day in the news, another retailer announces troubles.
House Of Fraser is still hanging on by the skin of its teeth, but the threat of it closing 32 stores, putting approximately 6000 jobs at risk, still lingers and acts as a stark reminder of the brutal reality that retail is struggling. HMV is back in administration for the second time in as many years and it was only a short while ago that M&S announced 100 store closures. The general reaction from the public is of sadness and disappointment, rightly so too. M&S is a mainstay of British retail. We all grew up with it, it’s familiar, it’s iconic. It’s as British as HP sauce, a red telephone box or even the royal family. But of course the real concern is that in the M&S case, it starts with 100 stores, but is that really as far as it will go? Is it a sign of bigger problems for the retailer? Either way, they are not alone. Topshop are closing stores, as are New Look and River Island. It’s a bleak outlook and reaffirms that the British high street has become a tired and troubled place. This seasons news reports claim it to be the worst Christmas period for bricks and mortar retailing since the recession.
With stores struggling and more brands seemingly destined to end up joining the list of lost retailers such as C&A, Allders, OurPrice, MFI, Woolworths, ToysRUs, Comet, Republic, USC and Blockbusters (to name but a few). All those in the industry need to start asking — what is it that has killed them all?
The first and often most obvious answer that everyone immediately goes to, is the internet. In the same way The Buggles said that “Video Killed The Radio Star” people think the internet is killing bricks and mortar retailers… but controversially, I call bullshit. Look at Primark as a case in point, they are one of the worlds fastest growing brands and yet all of their business is currently still coming through just one channel — stores.
The internet didn’t kill the high street.
The high street killed the high street.
I had this conversation with some friends a little while ago and their gut instinct was to immediately blame companies like Amazon, ASOS and eBay for the death of the high street. Can you really blame these businesses for simply doing a good job though? They’re just the internet retailers who seized an opportunity and ran with it.
Rewind to the days of dial up internet and I think it’s fairly safe to say that no one genuinely thought we may well end up using the internet to shop. Even the thought of sending emails seemed like more hassle than it was worth, so who the hell was going to shop online?! Back then it took 10 minutes just to get the connection up and running… but then it became instant. Then it became slick and easy. Broadband wireless routers meant you were ‘always’ online and mobile devices like tablets meant you could do it from the couch, the bus, the office. Suddenly shopping online wasn’t just real, it was actually easier. All these businesses did, was capture that moment and make it the normality. They saw the potential and understood the cost savings and benefits of not having physical stores, or the staff within them. Meaning they could undercut almost everyone — and as shopfloor space wasn’t an issue, they could offer an almost infinite range. No wonder customers started shopping online instead of in stores: It was cheaper, there was more choice and they didn’t even need to leave the house, let alone pay to park. It was just good business sense on these companies part and you can’t blame them. They cashed in that opportunity in, just like any one of us would’ve done.
We’re probably just annoyed we didn’t think of it first. Especially now Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos is reported to be worth an estimated $138billion.
I don’t blame the internet. It has its place in the new world and to be fair, it’s damn well earned it. Even now, it’s still working hard to keep evolving —you can “click and collect” from convenient locations that people pass everyday, such as train or petrol stations. You get same day home delivery and easy, free returns. It’s never been easier or more convenient. Every barrier that people have offered over the years as to why they don’t shop online, online has tried to respond to.
The issue is that the high street hasn’t earned it.
It hasn’t evolved.
In fact, the high street hasn’t done anything.
This ‘sudden’ boom in online retailing happened what, 10 years ago? 15?
Only now are the ‘established’ retailers of the past reacting to it… and I’m sorry to say that for many businesses this realisation may well have come too late. Having worked in retail for many, many years now, I actually think it’s criminal just how many brands have been arrogant enough to think that this cultural shift wouldn’t hurt them. Maybe they have been naive, maybe just belligerent. What ever the reason, these retailers are only now playing catch up and if they don’t get there quickly, I fear we will lose more iconic brands before long. So the question is, how do they catch up? How do they compete with this unstoppable force that is e-commerce?
Well, it’s easy. You do the things that the internet cannot do.
You do the things the internet can never take away from you.
You do the things that internet retailers are now desperately trying to do, but have yet to master.
You give customers 3 things:
People.
A lifestyle.
An Experience.
People.
No, I’m not about to get into some preachy session about the values of customer service. Frankly that’s lesson number one in any business and if you need convincing of the value of customer service, then as a business you probably deserve to go bust. For the high street, it’s bigger than that now. It’s bigger than a friendly smile and a “hello can I help you?” Twenty plus years ago, that might have been enough, but the world has changed. It’s far more competitive now and delivering great service alone just won’t cut it anymore.
What I mean by ‘people’ are ambassadors. People with product knowledge and a belief in what they’re selling. People that can represent the brand and the values, but more importantly, bring those values to life for the customers.
Any small business owner will live and breathe what they’re selling, because they’re passionate about it. That’s what makes small entrepreneurial businesses so exciting and why customers love them. That’s why the world has once again started to fall in love with small craft beer bars, street food vendors, independent coffee houses and small traders with passion and belief. It’s a big FU to the corporations who have become faceless, impersonal and horribly generic. They are purely profit driven machines and have lost sight of the values, beliefs, hows and whys that allowed them to get where they are in the first place.
“National record store day comes around once a year and even if you don’t own a record player, it’s as much about small businesses, as it is about records. Help the little guys. When you buy local you make a real difference. You’re not helping a CEO buy a third home… you’re helping a little girl get dancing lessons or a young boy get his team jersey. You’re helping a family pay the mortgage or a student pay for university.
So don’t just be a customer, be a shareholder.
Invest in dreams.”
It’s a tricky emotion and a knife edge part of business… You know that feeling when you find an independent restaurant that does really good, honest, top quality food? You treasure it. It becomes a favourite and you take others there, because it’s a diamond in the rough and you found it. You’re pleased to see them be successful, because you’re a supporter. You’re a believer. Then suddenly they have 5 restaurants and they start cutting corners. Now they’re buying in bulk and mass producing what was once made with love and care. The prices go up, but the personal service is now compromised. The waiter reels of the specials like a robot and has to check what the soup of the day is. The detail has gone.
Of course we want to see businesses and people do well, but it seems that it is often at the cost of the very thing that got them there. The brand often ends up losing the identity, personality and values that got it there. It’s just another chain restaurant.
In an age where you can buy anything, from almost anywhere and pay hugely varying prices for similar products, the mantra that “people buy people first and product second” has never been more important. Brands need to start investing in their teams and their people if they want to keep giving customers a reason to visit them. Remind your teams who you are, why they work for you, why you’re different to everyone else and most importantly why they want to be a part of it. If they want to be there, their work ethic goes up and the customers will know. They will recognise it as a positive experience.
They are often considered to be a businesses biggest overhead and most disposable cost when savings are needed, but cutting costs by reducing staff hours or laying people off just leaves customers struggling to find someone to share the brand experience with them. It also leaves the teams that remain with a negative attitude and a constant fear of the looming threat — how long before it’s me? Do we really think these people are going to be motivated enough to make the difference that will keep your business alive?
People and personalities can help save the high street, if brands give them the power and belief to do so. Because you can not get real human contact or interaction online.
A Lifestyle.
The businesses that are booming right now are those that are not just selling products, but an identity, an image, a lifestyle choice. They make you want to be in their ‘club’ — and don’t be fooled, we all have businesses who’s club we want to be in. So don’t be naive enough to think this doesn’t apply to every one of us here in the first world. We all have brands that we aspire towards (consciously or not) and this could be for any number of reasons…
It could be the product design or aesthetics, the most obvious example here being Apple. Think about those clean crisp lines and the minimalist approach to everything from the shop fits to the marketing. It’s no accident that even the packaging for many of the products, has been designed to look and feel like a designer fragrance. This desirability immediately sets them apart from the likes of the classic PC retailers and their “pile it high, sell it cheap” approach. Yes Apple aren’t cheap, but they sell their brand on a belief of quality, of aftercare service from product specialists and on classes to learn how to use their products to their fullest. If we’re honest though, it is mostly design led. They look premium, they’re desirable and how good does it feel when you’re the owner of one?
Oliver Bonas stores are another great example of a lifestyle retailer. They don’t even have a particular product offering, they have many that all compliment each other and create a lifestyle choice. It has a very clear and distinctive environment. Walking into one of their stores is almost like walking into a “real life” interior design Instagram or Pinterest account.
Maybe it is a brand that has values in line with yours. Examples like Finisterre or Patagonia (whose brand identities are largely built around sustainability and environmental impact), or Tesla (whose technology is considered revolutionary, progressive and boundary pushing) or even Toms (who help those less fortunate with charity contributions).
Perhaps you can identify with the heritage or history of the brand — such as Harrods, Selfridges or Fortnum and Mason. You believe in its quality and what it has stood for, for many years. Even Waterstones has a brand heritage we can all relate to — the smell, warmth and familiarity that comes from being in a decent bookstore. There is something strangely comforting about that feeling of consistency when shopping (it’s the same reason we like to go to our “usual” supermarket, we know the layout!) many of the most successful retailers play to this, Ikea being a great example.
Maybe the brand is simply one that it’s enough of a treat that you have to work to get there, it’s a goal. A reward. An “I’ve worked hard for this” treat. Something to strive for. A premium brand we identify with but can’t afford very often.
Whatever it is, all of these brands are currently considered to be pretty successful and they are bucking trends — simply because they are selling lifestyle choices and we want to be part of it. Even something as simple as going to Starbucks, was born from this premise. You can get a coffee anywhere, but Starbucks made it “cool”. They took the ‘Central Perk’ premise from ‘Friends’ (sorry if you haven’t seen the show), mass-produced it and then sold us the ‘Friends’ lifestyle dream. Now we’re all paying £5 or £6 for premium coffees, so that we can hang out in social spaces with people on couches, eating pastries and using the free wifi to work away on their apple macs (goes hand in hand, right? — not a coincidence either). Suddenly coffee shops were a cool hang out — and the coffee shop industry has boomed ever since.
So to wrap it up? Decide who your brand is and what it stands for — and then stick at it. Do one thing really well, but with conviction. With belief. With passion. …and make sure that your customers can identify that that is your thing.
We’ve all been to that restaurant that has over fifty options on the menu, but none of them particularly good. Compare that to your local restaurant that has maybe six things on the menu …but god damn it, they’re the best six things you’ve ever eaten.
Be That.
An Experience.
As I’ve said, retailers today can no longer just be in the business of selling products. If you can get them all online or cheaper, why would you come to a store and pay more?
Now the high streets need to be selling experiences.
“It is with experiences that bricks and mortar retail really has the opportunity to become the most powerful and measurable media channel available to a brand and the customer experiences that take place there will be the most profitable product a retailer can sell”.
Now it pains me to admit to this, but the Americans are absolutely all over this and they’re putting their British high street cousins to shame.
Love it or hate it, when Hollister landed on UK shores all those years ago, they were almost revolutionary compared to the “big white boxes” that stores like Zara, H&M, Topshop, NewLook and RiverIsland had become.
The half naked models hanging outside the front of the store were a bit much, granted, but bloody hell what an impact. Their stores looked like Southern Californian beach front houses, with tiled roofs and dark wood porches, palm trees and shuttered windows. Inside dark wood fixtures kept the theme running throughout the store. It was cool and dark with spotlights highlighting certain fixtures and key products. In terms of lighting it changed the game. They even pumped the iconic Hollister fragrance into the air so that the store and clothing inside smelt “like Hollister”. It became instantly recognisable. The staff all looked the brand (not without controversy I know, but I’m not getting into that now) and they all (rather cringe-worthy and robotically to be fair) adopted the brand language “Hey there, What’s up? Welcome to the pier”. A lot of Brits hated it. It was ostentatious and a bit full of itself (I don’t necessarily disagree either) but they had a very clear message of who they were and what they stood for… and for many years it absolutely boomed. They were untouchable, people were queuing to get in on a Wednesday afternoon. They were the brand to be a part of.
I’m not saying this is the best overall example, because a lot of it felt scripted and a bit fake and despite all the investment in the environment, it wasn’t delivered with real conviction. They didn’t get the teams buy-in that I mentioned is needed earlier. It quickly became known as a horrible brand to work for and the HR stories that came out were horrendous — but from a ‘physical’ in-store experience point of view, it completely broke with convention in the UK.
Another great business that comes to mind is Canadian brand LuLuLemon. Their stores aren’t even really stores, not in the normal sense of the word anyway. For those that aren’t familiar, they sell sportswear, or ‘athleisure’ as it is also becoming known. But their stores aren’t just stores. They organise activities like running and cycling classes out of them, run yoga classes in-store and often have a coffee shop available so that like minded customers can socialise together (or even with the staff, building customer relationships and trust) before or after their sessions. They’re more like little community sports cafes, that also happen to sell the kit you need to take part. The staff are knowledgeable and passionate, not just about the product and the brand — but about how to get the best out of their products and help you achieve your goals. They’re brand ambassadors, personal trainers and sales people — all in one.
But most of all, they’re real people. People with personalities, people with opinions and people who know that with the right support, engagement and encouragement you’ll be back. Eventually buying a product as you buy into the brand. It is not a hard sell, it’s an experience. The sale will come later, but for now that customer is understanding why it is worth coming to the brand and finding the reasons why they will keep coming. Eventually you will gain the loyalty — and that is when you have a customer for life — and a successful bricks and mortar retail business.
So like the two examples above, it’s now that physical retail has a chance to innovate and create meaningful relationships that cannot be replicated online. But to be honest, none of this is really anything new. At the start of the 20th century, Harry Gordon Selfridge revolutionised the shopping experience. He knew that half of success was getting customers into his store and giving them an experience. That’s why he created engaging stories behind the biggest display windows, added a café and restaurant, and built a roof garden to give his shoppers a well-deserved break. Just as retailers need to adapt today, he also turned a huge societal shift to his advantage. With women rightfully gaining more social and economic power, he knew the value of accommodating the developing shopping habits. By turning shopping into a leisure activity, he changed the industry and that is why Selfridges remains iconic today — even giving birth to a TV show about the man himself. The fact is, shops aren’t just for direct sales anymore. So if retailers follow customers behaviours, just like Harry Selfridge did, there might well be hope for the high street yet.
So the advice to bricks and mortar retailers is to stop thinking ‘stores’ and start thinking ‘stories’. Stop thinking ‘product’ and start thinking ‘productions’. As retailers everywhere struggle to come up with reasons why people should spend extra time and extra money to visit them, physical retail needs to embrace is true strength:
People want to shop in them.
It’s hard to whip yourself into a frenzy of emotion when you’re sitting at home, in your bathrobe, staring at a screen.
Maybe in their attempts to try and out manoeuvre Amazon, retailers have forgotten the real reason we need stores. Shopping together makes us feel connected. It’s fun and there’s something about the shopping experience that’s almost as good (or even better) than the buying part.
The buying race is over.
Amazon won.
The shopping race though, the struggle to create experiences that are worth paying for …is just beginning and the message to the “Big Brand” retailers left on the high street:
