CRISIS ON THE HIGH STREET: WHAT WILL BRING CUSTOMERS BACK?

Brexit, financial instability and online retailing are blamed for the high street retail crisis.  But the ailing retail sector is missing obvious problems which it can address says Natalie Calvert.

Debenhams is the latest retailer in pretty big trouble according to reports.  This is following the demise of Maplin’s, House of Fraser, Toys R Us, New Look, Poundland and over 1800 shops on the UK high streets which have closed in the last year -  with over 100,000 few people employed than three years ago. Even those not closing are cutting jobs. M&S is in perpetual trouble. Even John Lewis, the once peerless retail leader impervious to financial woes, is struggling, with profits down 99%.  

The problem with blaming outside forces is that the retailers can’t do anything about them.

According to the BBC 5 UK study into the ‘Crisis on the High Street’ there are six reasons why shops are closing:

• Squeezed incomes

• Shift to online 

• Changing tastes

• Rising overheads 

• Too many shops

• Too much debt

All these points have merit. We can blame online shopping giant Amazon for opening the floodgates, we can blame uncertainty around Brexit. The problem with blaming outside forces is that the retailers can’t do anything about them.

Yet there are some obvious changes that retailers can make to reverse the decline. Firstly, they need to establish whether they are offering a good customer experience.  Sounds simple, but in the melee of blame and panic, this is being overlooked.  This example illustrates this problem clearly. 

The anti-customer experience
Last weekend, I went to Debenhams to buy a particular brand of mascara (interestingly I go shopping for this rather than look online so that I can trust the ‘source’ of the product in these fake times). There was no shop assistant at the counter, no product in view for me to ‘self-serve’. In fact, the whole downstairs beauty department featured just two staff. I asked for help. Grudgingly the assistant came over, couldn’t find the product, offered me no alternative (not even her own brand) and so I left – not just the department but the store. Two days later I passed by Debenhams once again to try and buy that mascara and virtually the same thing happened -  and the store was still empty. 

What’s really interesting is that neither Debenhams or the big global brands that fill the floor space and represent the ‘front of house’ are trying to sort out the core problem. Apathetic staff are reflecting the chaos and lack of leadership - if the big businesses aren’t offering solutions, why do we expect demotivated staff to pick up the pieces?

If you think about the bigger picture, there are plenty of organisations and businesses pointing the finger and feeling sorry for themselves.  Yet who is taking a stand and rallying the retailers to fight back? There’s no government body, or local authority offering to help. No shopping centre or high street association is uniting these business and offering clarity.  

Look at the news about about Debenhams restructuring its finances, aiming to do deals with landlords and whether Sports Direct is trying to buy it. Why don’t you see any mention of how they will improve things for customers and employees.

The high street needs to go back to basics, think about the customer experience and rebuild. They need to work tougher to stave off the online threat and remind people while shopping can be a rewarding and fun experience.

JANUARY 6, 2020