The changes that have shaped the UK (and other countries)
High Streets started in the late 1970s with changes to planning law that
allowed large stores to move out of the constraints of the central business
district (CBD) to locations 'out of town' OOT. The reason for the change was
due to the impact of the car and mass manufacturing from overseas. Technology
of the barcode and first ERP systems drove this further and faster with
positive feedback in place: supermarket moves OOT dropping the spend on the HS
and decreasing the footfall. Reduced footfall pushes other retails to locate
out of town reducing footfall further. Today we have very large shopping
centres all being built OTT to facilitate the customers and the retail lorries.
The second big change was the barcode. The barcode allowed
retailers to change pricing dynamically which previously they had to separately
price items as by law the price of an item must to clearly shown. The knock on
effect was the way customers checked out - till operators simply scanned items
reducing error rates. It also cut down the risk to a retail of returning items
to the producer.
Third the credit [debit] card. The CC allowed for customers
to pay for items without the need for cash. With the barcode and the credit
card - electronic commerce was born - without the Internet :).
From this point late 1990s customers had already moved away
from the traditional High Street of once of week from a selection of stores.
OOT shopping centres and mega supermarkets dominated outside major cities
(which have good transport links).
When the Internet did turn up at its second attempt it came
with friends. By 2003 when the debris on the Dot.Com bubble had been cleared up
it came with a solid infrastructure back bone (no more dial up); globalised
products and brands; connected and mobile users (phones) and house hold brands
that worked: eBay and Amazon surviving today as retail market places and Apple
- a new store for digital goods.
HS retailers ignored the Internet fearing it would
cannibalise its in store sales. They were also protected by continuous growth
by cheap credit for both themselves and customers. This all ended in 2009 when
the banking world collapsed. Everything was reversed with credit now being very
expensive.
Stores had expanded both the size, number and amount of
stock in stores. Stores and to renegotiate rents were in big trouble and many
were forced out. Those that could had to implement new supply chain strategies
responding the customer demand - compare Zara with Marks & Spencer.
Eventually major brands offered a competitive shopping model
which worked. The example of Waterstone's is a brilliant example of not
multichannel but multi-monochannel where marketing channels do not talk to
themselves and staff don't have the authority to meet customer needs.
John Lewis, Debenhams and major stores are very successful
as they have the right operational setup. If you look at the figures from the
footfall figures for the UK for December big stores in big towns/cities grew -
not shrink - more people are going through the stores. However look at the
numbers out side the South East and big towns- smaller, possibly less well off
areas, are shrinking. This points to an economic turn down rather than a
shopping experience.
The next phase is how stores use mobile technology to
complement internal (supply chain) and external (customers) operations. The
Apple store does this brilliant and urge people to see how it works.
So in summary the High Street as people like to remember in
probably died 10 years ago - it just didn't know it. The big question is a)
does it matter - who cares? b) what will people do about it?
John
BlueOak_
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