February 2021 - 10 Minute Read - Written By Nick Lodge
THE FUTURE OF THE HIGH STREET
This won’t be the first report on the subject of ‘the future of the high street’ and it certainly won’t be the last. Recent reports have dealt with the concept of ‘what next for physical retail?’ or ‘how does retail need to evolve to engage and enthuse the consumer? whilst these topics are urgently important, our focus here, deals with a very physical element – the stores and buildings themselves.
RETAIL APOCALYPSE
Due to the changing trends of consumer shopping habits, 2020 was always going to be a challenging year for physical retail. Nobody predicted the devastating impact that the global pandemic was to bring. COVID-19 didn’t just create a storm for retail to weather, it created irreversible and destructive impact to all non-essential retailers, turning the world of retail on its head. Online shopping became the saving grace for retailers and consumers – can you imagine what would have happened if a pandemic of this type struck in the 1990’s before the advent of online shopping, sophisticated distribution networks, with next day or same day deliveries? The last 10 months would have been extremely bleak…
In many ways the pandemic has accelerated the future marketplace, online shopping is now something that the majority of consumers use commonly on a weekly basis for essentials and luxuries out of necessity, due to the national lockdowns. Click & Collect and quick and easy (free) returns, reduce the need to showcase and test products in stores, even major purchases such as used cars are now being bought online, with the help of video previews and delivered to direct your door.
Prior to the pandemic. The reason why online shopping was becoming more and more commonplace with consumers was primarily due to three factors:
EASE OF SHOP
CHOICE
TIME
Time. A valuable asset for everyone. Why spend time shopping when you can shop from the comfort of your own home. No need to drive and park up in a city centre, or out of town retail park. No need to traipse from shop to shop. Ironically for the majority of consumers the ‘reward’ for the convenience of online shopping was time. Time to spend with family, time to spend relaxing and socialising, and time to spend at home. Something we’ve all been required to do recently…
To counteract the challenge of online retail, brands and retailers have to innovate and invest in their stores to make them attractive, engaging and inspiring. Consumers will have different needs when the vaccination program has concluded and retail can get back to normal, but has a lot of irreversible damage already been done? Major city high streets, not just in the UK but throughout Europe and across the world, all have a common similarity – empty retail units. Not just small stores, but prominent department store sized flagships, prominently placed at the heart of a city centre high street, or regional mega-mall. This is a big problem.
TOO LATE TO LET?
WHO COULD TAKE OVER THE UNITS?
It’s clear that there are few retailers in a position to take over these units on a like for like basis. Retailers such as JD Sports, Sports Direct (including their Flannels fascia) and Primark are all performing well and investing in new and bigger units in prominent retail locations, fitted out with their new ‘future-proof’ retail identities – creating a more engaging and attractive retail environment with digital engagement tools and service-related enhancements, to make the shopper experience a compelling and satisfying one. However, these retailers already have an established retail portfolio and have invested heavily in new stores and store refurbishments in recent years, and in most cases, they will already be present on the highstreets of concern.
Will Ikea continue with its plan to open city centre stores in the UK? Could we see the much-heralded Amazon Go become a staple of the UK high street? Will super-hot online fitness brand Gymshark start to establish a bricks and mortar retail presence in high profile trade zones in key cities? Will Boohoo or ASOS begin to open their own flagships on the highstreet?
The simple answer is, we don’t know who will take over these units or when. In the meantime, they will join a long list of empty retail units across the UK and retail unemployment will rocket further.