Sir Terence Conran is someone that has achieved a first ranking position in the annals of retailing and it is difficult to imagine the UK high street without his influences - Habitat, Mothercare, BhS and a host of others. A designer with a magical flair for retail marketing he has inspired many within the industry and has provided openings for a not inconsiderable number of well-known names.
In an interview with Retail Week, he has reflected on the past, the current and the future - and the wise will take note. The wise that is from all sizes of business; because Sir Terence (he ought to be Lord - No 10 take note!) has reflected upon what are the essential truths that have underpinned his success in retailing and these truths are of as much relevance to the emergent entrepreneur as they are to established chains.
Without this sounding like an advertisement for Retail Week, this is one that ought to be read, so go and subscribe at www.retail-week.com.
In the meantime, keep a watch on what is written in these blogs because they echo many of Sir Terence's opinions - keep down costs, maintain margins, focus on the product and be aware of the customers needs. This is retailing in a nutshell.
Showing posts with label Retail Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retail Week. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Bad news for Oxford - or is it really?
Retail Week has run a report today by Ben Cooper about an announced delay in developing the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford. The report says that in the opinion of research group CACI that this will hamper Oxford's bid to achieve what would in their opinion be the 30th most important shopping destination in the UK.
So what? Have we become so enamoured with rankings and superlatives that they have taken on a life of their own and as such have sufficient real meaning that they deserve to be an end in their own right? Oxford may not achieve this apparently coveted position in the minds of those who give a damn (I have to admit that I am unsure as to who precisely covets it...) but it does not alter one iota the position that, in this case, Oxford holds in reality.
Oxford has significant standing as a visitor attraction and any retailer worth his or her salt ought to be able to make a perfectly good living in such a vibrant city if they target their audience accurately and ensure that their marketing mix is appropriate to the particular customer mix that the city offers. By being 30th in the rankings will not mean that potential customers in Arbroath are suddenly going to wake up on a Saturday morning and say "I hear Oxford's reached No 30 in the charts - I know! Let's go shopping there today". The good citizens of Arbroath will continue to make their way to those shops that they find convenient and which offers them the goods they want at the price they wish to pay - without the inconvenience of staying overnight.
One reality that is being imposed by the combined stresses of the effects of the global credit crunch and the cost of oil is that the hinterland of the average shopping destination is almost certainly shrinking. So to have national league tables of shopping centres is as meaningful as a national league table for car fuel prices at the pump - if it's too far away then it really has no meaning at all to the punter. Oxford, when compared to the centres that it currently is actually in direct competition with will be ranked far higher than 30th. Oxford has the strengths that are peculiar to Oxford, with its pull of visitors from across the globe as tourists - could Milton Keynes, for instance, ever really trouble Oxford as competition for the Pounds, the Euros, the Dollars and the Yen in the pockets of those visitors; yet MK is developing a significant and broad shopping interest in a purpose built modern centre and it is only an hour away by car from Oxford. No they are in different markets for those whom they seek to attract from a distance.
But this is not about Oxford, this is about meaningless comparators that presumably do mean something to someone. The point that I am labouring to make here is that local authorities, as lead authorities in planning matters and who in the modern age are largely responsible for the vision that is their town centres, ought not to be drawn into this charade of league tables for the sake of it. Your town will have its attributes, it will have its peculiar strengths and it will have a definable hinterland beyond which the hopes of attracting visitors are small, no matter how well placed you might be in the league tables. Individual stores may have a hinterland that are well beyond that of the town generally, but this will not mean that town is likely to attract significant general visitors from equal distances.
It is, of course, a fact that there is a gravitational effect for retail centres and generally speaking the larger they are the greater the hinterland they will achieve. It is also a fact that the greter the non-retail entertainment and leisure offer, the greater the hinterland - because it will become a day out. The rational plan is to ensure that your local shopping core has all the characteristics that will draw the bulk of the custom from that area surrounding the centre in terms of affordable travel distances and to be the best for your local residential population and those visitors who will be arriving anyway. Let us ditch the notion that a shopping destination will ever be anything but sub-regional in nature and ever likely to be in absolute competition with the other end of the country.
So what? Have we become so enamoured with rankings and superlatives that they have taken on a life of their own and as such have sufficient real meaning that they deserve to be an end in their own right? Oxford may not achieve this apparently coveted position in the minds of those who give a damn (I have to admit that I am unsure as to who precisely covets it...) but it does not alter one iota the position that, in this case, Oxford holds in reality.
Oxford has significant standing as a visitor attraction and any retailer worth his or her salt ought to be able to make a perfectly good living in such a vibrant city if they target their audience accurately and ensure that their marketing mix is appropriate to the particular customer mix that the city offers. By being 30th in the rankings will not mean that potential customers in Arbroath are suddenly going to wake up on a Saturday morning and say "I hear Oxford's reached No 30 in the charts - I know! Let's go shopping there today". The good citizens of Arbroath will continue to make their way to those shops that they find convenient and which offers them the goods they want at the price they wish to pay - without the inconvenience of staying overnight.
One reality that is being imposed by the combined stresses of the effects of the global credit crunch and the cost of oil is that the hinterland of the average shopping destination is almost certainly shrinking. So to have national league tables of shopping centres is as meaningful as a national league table for car fuel prices at the pump - if it's too far away then it really has no meaning at all to the punter. Oxford, when compared to the centres that it currently is actually in direct competition with will be ranked far higher than 30th. Oxford has the strengths that are peculiar to Oxford, with its pull of visitors from across the globe as tourists - could Milton Keynes, for instance, ever really trouble Oxford as competition for the Pounds, the Euros, the Dollars and the Yen in the pockets of those visitors; yet MK is developing a significant and broad shopping interest in a purpose built modern centre and it is only an hour away by car from Oxford. No they are in different markets for those whom they seek to attract from a distance.
But this is not about Oxford, this is about meaningless comparators that presumably do mean something to someone. The point that I am labouring to make here is that local authorities, as lead authorities in planning matters and who in the modern age are largely responsible for the vision that is their town centres, ought not to be drawn into this charade of league tables for the sake of it. Your town will have its attributes, it will have its peculiar strengths and it will have a definable hinterland beyond which the hopes of attracting visitors are small, no matter how well placed you might be in the league tables. Individual stores may have a hinterland that are well beyond that of the town generally, but this will not mean that town is likely to attract significant general visitors from equal distances.
It is, of course, a fact that there is a gravitational effect for retail centres and generally speaking the larger they are the greater the hinterland they will achieve. It is also a fact that the greter the non-retail entertainment and leisure offer, the greater the hinterland - because it will become a day out. The rational plan is to ensure that your local shopping core has all the characteristics that will draw the bulk of the custom from that area surrounding the centre in terms of affordable travel distances and to be the best for your local residential population and those visitors who will be arriving anyway. Let us ditch the notion that a shopping destination will ever be anything but sub-regional in nature and ever likely to be in absolute competition with the other end of the country.
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Bad tidings as April gets underway
This blog has been with-held until a decent period had past since the 1st April - just in case anyone confused this worrying message with a form of black humour. Sadly, it is the real thing...
Katie Kilgallen, writing in the 'Retail Week' about the latest ICM poll to be published reflecting the mood of the consumer in the High street. She reports that "Of the 1,050 consumers surveyed, two thirds believe economic turmoil will increase over the next 12 months. Nearly a third fear for their jobs and 42 per cent feel they have less to spend."
Yes, it is only a small sample, yes it might well be that the particular locations of these people would mean that their view of the world is unlike anything experienced in your High street; but all that does not mean that it is not a reality. Retailers, especially SME retailers, are resourceful and optimisitc creatures usually - but it is those who are pragmatic and plan for resilience against the draughts of recession who are most likely to remain in business.
Of course, these things also offer a glimmer of opportunity too! The flexibility of the SME can really score in times of recession - remember not to buy too much stock and keep a weather eye out for the changes in the market demands and re-stock in small quantities of those things that are selling. Don't discount more than is absolutely essential and trade on quality service and quality product - but at a reasonable price that compares well within the normal market range. Above all, maintain profit levels, reduce costs and ensure that your customer service is second to none! (Remember to train your staff effectively too ... the subject of another blog, I can just feel it coming on)
Katie Kilgallen, writing in the 'Retail Week' about the latest ICM poll to be published reflecting the mood of the consumer in the High street. She reports that "Of the 1,050 consumers surveyed, two thirds believe economic turmoil will increase over the next 12 months. Nearly a third fear for their jobs and 42 per cent feel they have less to spend."
Yes, it is only a small sample, yes it might well be that the particular locations of these people would mean that their view of the world is unlike anything experienced in your High street; but all that does not mean that it is not a reality. Retailers, especially SME retailers, are resourceful and optimisitc creatures usually - but it is those who are pragmatic and plan for resilience against the draughts of recession who are most likely to remain in business.
Of course, these things also offer a glimmer of opportunity too! The flexibility of the SME can really score in times of recession - remember not to buy too much stock and keep a weather eye out for the changes in the market demands and re-stock in small quantities of those things that are selling. Don't discount more than is absolutely essential and trade on quality service and quality product - but at a reasonable price that compares well within the normal market range. Above all, maintain profit levels, reduce costs and ensure that your customer service is second to none! (Remember to train your staff effectively too ... the subject of another blog, I can just feel it coming on)
Monday, 11 February 2008
Another one bites the dust
This week the news has arrived that another (this time a lesser known name) has bitten the dust. Elvi had 28 of its own stores and a larger number of concessions in well-known department stores; it specialised in fashion in larger sizes for women.
So, why is this noteworthy, hasn't the phenomena of closing High Street stores been mentioned on this blog very recently? Lisa Berwin has reported on the closure in 'Retail Week', a journal much favoured by Welbeck, and in her piece she cites that there had been a management buy-out, that a venture capitalist bought into the business in October 2006 and left just a few weeks ago. She comments on the likelihood that declining consumer confidence in the High Street was a major contributor to falling revenues; this associated with rising costs and ... well we can guess the rest.
This blog is an unmitigated supporter of small businesses in retail, and it will endeavour to draw lessons from things that go bang in the High Street, if only to act as a warning to others who might avoid such an eventuality; however, it is really quite sad to reflect on the losses that these headlines briefly touch upon - there is the undoubted grief to the management who will have been suddenly very exposed when the capital investors withdrew; there is the major calamity for the staff whose jobs will probably now be lost - at a time of increasing uncertainty; there are the minor shareholders, whose investment has evaporated; even , to a much lesser degree, there are the store directors who host the concessions who will now have a hole in their offer.
What can be drawn from all this? The usual warnings about maintaining cash-flows - keeping revenues up, and maintain costs within an affordable level as determined by those revenues. What about the role of the investment vehicles? Can we blame them for pulling out to protect their capital reserves - probably not; do they provide a service - on balance, they probably do - without these sorts of investment vehicles the small businesses of today would never stand a chance to become the larger companies of tomorrow in the rapidly moving environment of retailing in the UK and globally.
Should there be some questions asked in this case to determine whether the investors acted responsibly in this particular case - actually I think it should, and it should occur whenever venture capital or other significant investor becomes involved in any business. In the same way as banks and others lending to the public need to be more careful about lending, and the public about borrowing; so to do capital investment vehicles need to be commited to a period of security for the business into which they are investing, and the company management need to be realistic about everything that they do, and their expectations. I wonder, since I do not know, whether in this particular case a period of just 15 months was a realistic timeframe for the investment.
So, why is this noteworthy, hasn't the phenomena of closing High Street stores been mentioned on this blog very recently? Lisa Berwin has reported on the closure in 'Retail Week', a journal much favoured by Welbeck, and in her piece she cites that there had been a management buy-out, that a venture capitalist bought into the business in October 2006 and left just a few weeks ago. She comments on the likelihood that declining consumer confidence in the High Street was a major contributor to falling revenues; this associated with rising costs and ... well we can guess the rest.
This blog is an unmitigated supporter of small businesses in retail, and it will endeavour to draw lessons from things that go bang in the High Street, if only to act as a warning to others who might avoid such an eventuality; however, it is really quite sad to reflect on the losses that these headlines briefly touch upon - there is the undoubted grief to the management who will have been suddenly very exposed when the capital investors withdrew; there is the major calamity for the staff whose jobs will probably now be lost - at a time of increasing uncertainty; there are the minor shareholders, whose investment has evaporated; even , to a much lesser degree, there are the store directors who host the concessions who will now have a hole in their offer.
What can be drawn from all this? The usual warnings about maintaining cash-flows - keeping revenues up, and maintain costs within an affordable level as determined by those revenues. What about the role of the investment vehicles? Can we blame them for pulling out to protect their capital reserves - probably not; do they provide a service - on balance, they probably do - without these sorts of investment vehicles the small businesses of today would never stand a chance to become the larger companies of tomorrow in the rapidly moving environment of retailing in the UK and globally.
Should there be some questions asked in this case to determine whether the investors acted responsibly in this particular case - actually I think it should, and it should occur whenever venture capital or other significant investor becomes involved in any business. In the same way as banks and others lending to the public need to be more careful about lending, and the public about borrowing; so to do capital investment vehicles need to be commited to a period of security for the business into which they are investing, and the company management need to be realistic about everything that they do, and their expectations. I wonder, since I do not know, whether in this particular case a period of just 15 months was a realistic timeframe for the investment.
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