Comment: Repurposing the High Street
The vacant property figures recently published by the Local Data Company really brought home the scale of the difficulties facing the high street at present. By Andrew McClelland
The popular phrase of reference seems to be ‘the death of the high street’ when discussing this and the internet is receiving a lot of the blame for taking away customers and business. But the rhetoric of death and blame is misleading; really the focus should be on how the high street can be repurposed to match the social requirements of the 21st Century.
Consumers are increasingly using the internet for tasks that used to be carried out in-store. Our figures reveal that online now accounts for 17% of the retail market. But moving away from straight-up sales percentages, it is clear to see the extent to which consumer behaviour is changing: our recent research revealed that a staggering 53% of consumers avoid in-store travel agents altogether during their holiday-booking process. Only a short period ago, that figure would have been unthinkable.
So is it the end for the high street or is this trend reversible?
While it is undeniable that technology and the internet have brought about a major change in culture and shopping behaviour, the challenge is not perhaps looking for ways to prevent a perceived inevitable death of the high street, but instead considering what repurposing might mean to make it appropriate for our times.
Historically the high street was successful as each one evolved to serve the needs of the local community. Many commuters both worked and lived in the same area so the choice and availability of products and services were appropriate for that specific community and geographic region.
Over time commuter patterns have changed, with people able to undertake longer journeys to work due to the expanded and improved transport infrastructure. This means that in many cases a consumer will use one high street for their social requirements and another during their working week. Any high street then has a far wider demographic to serve than it traditionally did.
As the ‘through-traffic’ changed over time, stores on the high street necessarily had to adapt to cater for the different demographics. While huge department stores offering a wide range of products could be accommodated on well-established shopping streets in large cities, smaller ones could not support them. This led to huge shopping centres being set up on the periphery of towns to act as a catch-all for a specific region, conveniently located near to major road routes.
Shopping centres such as Lakeside in Essex may be thought of as providing ‘destination shopping’, with a wide selection of shops set up in proximity and facing each other, in imitation of the traditional high street. Situated away from the community, they yet provide a focal point dealing with the social needs of several communities.
The internet makes possible, and could even be seen to encourage, store-less shopping. However, the provision of options such as reserving a product for collection from a physical store increases convenience for the consumer, who can be sure the journey will not be wasted, and also presents an opportunity for the retailer; while they are in the store, further opportunities exist for selling extra products to that consumer, either by that retailer or other traders in the area.
A well-structured marketing strategy incorporating multiple channels can help to drive footfall into retailer stores. Geo-aware mobile campaigns can be set up to alert opted-in consumers to offers in stores near to their physical location, and social media networks can be very effective through the provision of time-sensitive offers and vouchers only redeemable in-store.
The consumer has increasingly taken charge in terms of how retail develops, empowered by technology and the choice of channels now available to them. In order to prosper, retailers have to carefully monitor how people want to shop, how they want to be engaged, and structure their offering accordingly.
Most high streets have gradually lost their sense of independent identity, becoming copies of each other to cater for a more diverse audience. Whereas before the high street was primarily regarded as a shopping environment, the most pressing question now would appear to be what role it plays in contemporary society; what should the definition now be of a high street?
It could be argued that the problem of the high street is actually a planning issue – should it continue to be regarded as a shopping hub or does it need to be completely rethought and repurposed to meet the requirements of communities?
In any high street there exists a community in the blocks of flats above the shops, so each one is already a residential area. The solution could be that they become far more social in their design, incorporating more ‘meeting’ spaces such as cafes and public areas such as libraries, creating a focal point for the community to come together. Although there would still be a retailer presence, there is a question over whether the focus has to be upon product-retailers.
A multichannel marketing strategy that makes good use of all available channels can greatly benefit a retailer, but the online market cannot be used to save the high street. The problems are more deep-rooted than that.
Andrew McClellan is Chief Operations & Policy Officer, IMRG
