With the 2008 Retail Week Conference coming to London next week (which Conchango is one of the key Sponsors)- I thought that an objective view of the traditional high street was in order to see how in this e-commerce focused age how retailers are coping in the 21st Century and what (if any..) new initiatives and learnings from the digital age have been embraced into good old bricks and mortar!
To say that I was shocked, horrified and downright disgusted just doesn't paint the bleak and grim future that the traditional high street holds if it continues down this bedraggled path. Apart from a few key retailers (M&S, Boots, John Lewis & Tesco) of the stores that I visited - or should I say dared to enter - the results were beyond belief.
Before I begin my usual rant, when I started in retail 22 years ago - it was drilled into me by my former managers that "Retail is Detail!" and "Time to Lean, Time to Clean"
So what is so bad?
OK I'm not talking about those faceless monstrosities that we call Shopping Malls - as they fit the purpose and allow the shopper to wander in relative comfort and safety while browsing familiar high street brand names, eating lunch and leaving the expansive (expensive) car park - but even there we find the seeds of the high street death virus beginning to spawn out of control - Customer Service - followed closely behind with basic hygiene factors (dirty shelves, dusty stock, poor merchandise, dire marketing and lack of detail!)
So let's take a look at the first point of interest - you have decided to venture out on to the high street and do a spot of window shopping, browsing or just to wander around the shops on a beautiful Spring day - and the first thing that hits you is... the state of the streets and the shops themselves.
Dirty, grimy, eroding, decaying and unkempt - now there has to be agreements between, Councils, Landlords and Retailers to actually sort these basics out - if the outside of your shop building looks like a post-apocalyptic war zone - then to be honest you're not really enticing the footfall towards your store. Look at it from a customer's viewpoint - would you enter a store that looked like that from the outside? If the answer is NO, then do something about it, take pride in the appearance of your storefront.
If you do decide to ignore the exterior and venture into the retailer's emporium - you notice that there seems to be no real method to the madness that is the in-store merchandising and placement of their goods, random - or whatever there is too much of will normally grace the unexpected customer. This will normally be accompanied with an in-your-face massive discount, prices slashed or some kind of mid-season SALE. THINK before stuffing the store, window or entrance with so many messages that the consumer is over-awed with messages which only confuses and distracts them from the key. A lot of the independent retailers that I visited decided that cheap neon stars stuck in random fashion, and placed somewhere close to the massive stack of over-stocked, poorly bought items that seemed a good purchase while at some sales convention - this is NOT the way to merchandise your front of store. The customer needs to understand what kind of retail environment you are, if they have ventured in, then they must be given an opportunity to understand what your store is all about - do you really want them to think you are a cheap bargain basement store that just piles it high and sells it cheap? If that is your business model then fine, but at least use some kind of merchandising techniques to let your customer flow around your store - no matter how big or small. Look at the way IKEA lays out their store - yes they could do with some merchandising lessons in a lot of areas - but you flow around the store with relative ease - almost on an "IKEA Journey" - give the customer the same experience at your store.
Now we get to the biggest drawback of the high street - STAFF! - I can, and will tear this area apart after working in this environment, from a weekend shelf-stacker all the way through to managing muti-million pound stores and 100+ staff, and did this for 10 years, and I must say I have never seen such apathetic staff on the high street than I have seen recently. You look at some of these big brands, such as Woolworths, back at head office there will be customer service charter that is agreed with the Operations & HR Teams on what the staff should do, how to behave, how to reacts to customers, how to merchandise, operate a till and how to treat customers (just as you would want to be treated!) - However the reality is very different. Where does this stem from - well you have to look at the Management to begin with Regional Managers and Store Managers - these are the key to the overall smooth running and appearance of the store (inside and out) so going back to the first area that is the external condition of the retail store. If it looks rundown and shabby and well decrepit then be pro-active and do something about it. Your landlords will have a responsibility to maintain the exterior of your shop - get the ball moving and if you have a property department - log the condition with them - and give clear areas that need immediate attention, along with pictures. This will be sent to the landlord / owners of the unit with a set time to have these things resolved. Then of course keep following up - it takes time, patience and perseverance but if you give up and think that its a lost cause then - so is your business and management skills. Then inside the biggest draw back is the staff, who if not chatting to each other behind the counter of their latest exploits or on the salesfloor attempting to merchandise - but really throwing stock onto the shelves and gossiping about what they will do that evening - and using language that would make even me blush - never mind trying to navigate around them with a buggy or wheelchair and then looking and tutting at you if it is you that is inconveniencing them!! I know retail is not the best paid area to work in, but you can not excuse any rudeness or tolerate that kind of behaviour - because as a person interacting with other people, if you do not take pride in what you do, and treat people on how you would like to be treated - then why are they there? Is it because they think that it is the easy way to make some ££, you don't need a massive set of qualifications to do the job that is expected of you? Whatever it is it is still a job that millions of people do everyday - and in some retail establishments seem to have installed a pride, passion and respect in what they do. So it must then reflect back to the management who are either recruiting the wrong people, or not training and developing their staff - or have the same apathy and simply don't care either! I hope not because what an even sorrier state of affairs the retail sector must be in!
Either way if it continues you (the retailers) wont have a business as customers do have a choice. More and more consumers fed up with the crap attitudes of staff, poor facilities and over priced "tat" and confusing merchandising realise that they can just sit in the comfort of their home, browse the virtual high street and not have to face or put up with the mouthy or ignorant staff.
...but there then lies the next problem for our intrepid consumer - you have abandoned the high street only to be confronted with the biggest faux pas on the Virtual High Street - really really badly designed and executed websites - with bad entrance, poor merchandising - and although there is no staff, somewhere behind the scenes there is a couple of web merchandisers chatting about their weekend exploits while adding products to the online catalogue.... you can see where the next blog is going.
So who are these retailers - time to name and shame...
Woolworths | WH Smith | Adams | Zavvi | Robert Dyers | Morrisons | Rymans / Partners | Whole host of Independents (too many to mention) | Argos | BhS | and too many more to mention here...
(oh and these were stores that were visited from North East of Scotland, through the midlands and down to the South East - and in each case the above retailers were all guilty of all these points)