‘In-store experience’ key for retailers says KPMG’s Green
RETAIL expert Brian Green of KPMG says retailers must improve the in-store experience and engage with customers in a better way if they are to survive and thrive.
Mr Green, partner and head of retail at KPMG in the North West, was speaking after the grim results from the Centre for Retail Research this week which forecast that nearly one in five high street shops in the region could be forced to close by 2018, because of continuing growth in online shopping.
The CRR predicts that over the next five years, the number of UK retail stores will drop from 281,930 to 220,000 if current trends continue. This will trigger 316,000 job losses.
Mr Green said: “Online spending continues to grow month-on-month as technology advances to meet consumers’ appetite for greater convenience. This has implications for sustaining stores, although it remains to be seen whether the rate of closures in the North West and wider UK will match figures laid out in the report.
“Most large and mid-market retailers are now focused on their multi-channel propositions to battle these prevailing headwinds. Combinations of store, catalogue, online, mobile device and click and collect are ways in which companies are diversifying to meet the buying patterns of their own consumers.
“If the high street is to co-exist with e-commerce, retailers across the spectrum must acknowledge that shopping for discretionary spend goods is now more of a leisure activity.
“They must enhance ‘store experience’ and build engagement with customers to develop brand loyalty. Both can help to sustain footfall, and apply as much to a well-known high street name as they do to a local butcher,” he added.
