Town centre futures and retail realities
Town centre futures and retail realities
The recent Experian report on town centre futures highlights the gap there currently is between the high street and the online retail world. High street vendors have had to adapt over the years to the shifting requirements for online shopping and upto 7% of all reported high street sales are now online. In addition The Portas Review, which elevated the issue of town centre decline to the level of national debate, set out the considerable challenges facing town centres, and identified town centre management (in the guise of Town Teams) as the primary agents of adaptation and change.
Over the next 10 years’ time Experian predicts there will be three million more people in the UK over the age of 70. James Miller from Experian said High Streets and town centres had “a careful balancing act to play”. “They must fulfil the modern need for convenience and value of those with increasingly limited resources and incomes, but not to the detriment of quality and service sought by older and more affluent consumers,” he said.
It is important to note that not only the ageing population or tight wallets that should be key influencing factors but also the expectations of up-and-coming generations of ‘connected’ social shoppers. They will expect a very different world with different levels of service that support instant consumer demand along with engaging and rewarding experiences.
The technology investor Chris Dixon wrote: “What most people agree on is that e-commerce as a whole will continue to grow rapidly and eat into offline commerce. In the steady state, offline commerce will serve only two purposes: immediacy (stuff you need right away) and experiences (showroom, fun venues). All other commerce will happen online.”
It is not only the responsibility of the community to support local businesses but also councils, landowners and property developers. There needs to be a shift in thinking; a shift that no longer thinks of the high street as an entity where consumers peruse down looking for the next desirable object to purchase, the ‘Burlington Arcade experience’. But a place where the online worlds are connected to the shop windows and collection points, where councils support the high street with relaxed laws on short term parking and lower business rates, where landowners and developers support their local shops with the correct online networks, support and marketing budget to make their high street more compelling, its no longer just about footfall, its about a new model of service and support. We are entering a new era of need and expectation, those who can, would be wise to take the lead and embrace technology as-well-as provide ‘inline’ quality services for this revolution which is on our doorstep.