The retail revolution

Image by Mike Petrucci

The last week has been a revolutionary one for the high street. With Bonmarché falling into administration and the announcement that Debenhams would close.

Now council leaders from across Yorkshire and the Humber have written to Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and local Government, to highlight the industries plight.

With vast swathes of the region still waiting to find out if on 16 December they’ll remain in Tier 3, what impact is Covid-19 having on retail?

The simple answer is significant and transformational, in fact new research suggest one in 10 local shops are on a “cliff edge” and could face closure without a successful trading period this Christmas.

TheBusinessDesk.com recently spoke to independent comic book store OK Comics, an award-winning retailer based in Thornton’s Arcade, Leeds. The owner Jared Myland has been cautioning about the impact of the pandemic on retail since before the second lockdown.

He explained: “When we closed for the first lockdown we launched an online mail order option, which we saw a lot of people use. However, when we reopened it got really quiet. People weren’t out shopping like we and other retailers were expecting – we didn’t have the queues outside our shop or our neighbours’ shops that you saw outside B&Q.

“A lot of people including our landlord think, ‘you’re open again now so you must be alright’. The truth isn’t so black and white, none of the office workers around us are back and people have been avoiding using public transport so the city centre was busy for a day or so when it first opened but hasn’t necessarily sustained this”

OK Comics, Thornton’s Arcade, Leeds

He went on to explain that Thornton’s Arcade, a Victorian shopping arcade that was originally opened in 1878, and is home to a plethora of independent shops, had been significantly impacted by the virus.

“Some of our neighbours are doing really well – those shops that like us have good face to face relationships with their customers. However, there are other shops that have realised their business can work really well online – so why do they need the bricks and mortar store and staffing costs.”

At the time of speaking he said there were six empty units in the Arcade and it was the worst he’d seen it in his 16-years there.

Looking to the future the store owner said: “The landscape of the UK high streets is going to be vastly different in 2021. Big names that shoppers have taken for granted for years are going, if not already gone. The remaining shops are going to have to offer something special to entice people into the city centres.”

The move online which Myland and many other shop owners have done has been a challenge for some businesses. But we’re now hearing stories of groups who want to help high streets to go online. However one of the first to do this was Chris Sands who created the campaign Totally Locally – which went on to be one of the UK’s biggest grass roots high street campaigns.

Sands explains the idea originally started as a marketing campaign for Calderdale Council in 2010 and following its success he was inundated with other locations wanting to use the model. It was at this point he decided to make the tools free and now it has been used by over 50 independent high streets and towns across the UK as well as towns in Australia, New Zealand, France, the USA and Canada.

However Sands saw that Covid-19 posed a new threat to the local high street. Totally Locally had originally been about getting shoppers to use their local shops and visit them using window stickers, posters and tradition point of sale material. But with a lockdown implemented and with not all stores able to trade online he saw a chance to take the campaign and the high street virtual.

As a result the campaign has partnered with Visa to launch town based websites. These allow customers to buy products from multiple shops and pay with one easy payment at the checkout and then choose a click and collect or delivery option.

In fact the scheme first launched with Totally Locally Hebden Bridge and is growing its offering. It offers no set up cost and the first month for free but then afterwards each shop included in the site pays £3 per week – with no contract and no commission fee.

Sands explains: “We realised if we had another lockdown [speaking before lockdown 2], many bricks and mortar shops could go under as they don’t have an e-commerce website, or they do and it’s lost on page 10 of google.

“So what we wanted to do was take the whole high street and put it in one place online. So with Hebden Bridge, you can go shop by shop or search via category and shop locally from your home. We also think you may find shops that you didn’t know were there.”

The site features an array of shops, but what’s special is even retailers who did have an e-commerce platform have signed up as they want to be part of the movement and to support the local community comments Sands.

In fact the idea has proved so popular that Totally Locally already has a waiting list of a 30 further towns that want a high street site.

Whatever the future holds now a vaccine is rolling out, the high street is once again facing a challenge and needs to evolve. The silver lining around this cloud is that there are people and organisations which are ready to do whatever they can to help it survive!

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