How High Streets Could Engage In Appropriate Marketing Practice to Evolve - Essay Example

How High Streets Could Engage In Appropriate Marketing Practice to Evolve To Appeal to Todays Consumers High Street is often referred as the trend promoting the main business street of a town. High Streets have been a long followed shopping tradition in Britain. The High Streets of Britain accommodate a considerable number of small shops in a wide-ranging variety to offer the authentic British shopping experiences to the customers. Traditionally, in an urbanised location, High Streets indicated the key places for business, mainly shops and street stalls in town. It is correspondingly used to denote the concept of urban retail sector for all small shops and services outlets (English Heritage, 2013). Many business commentators continue to express deeply contrasting views with regard to Britain’s High Streets when comparing the tradition with the newly evolving contemporary shopping trends through supermarkets. Debates have therefore been centred on the scepticism as to whether the rise of contemporary shopping malls will lead to the abolition of Britain’s High Streets (English Heritage, 2013). In this report, the discussion will emphasise the most appropriate ways through which, High Streets could implement marketing practices with the intention to evolve as a competitive business segment in today’s market context. High Street has long been associated with the British retail industry. In this contemporary world, where customer choices and preferences are changing so rapidly leading to a favourable growth in modern shopping malls, analysts have been quite dubious in defining the long sustenance of the High Streets. Recent evidences to this context revealed that retail industry is disappearing very rapidly due to the closing of small shops or independent convenience stores on a regular basis, which makes the future of the High Streets highly uncertain. The experts have constantly debated about the future prospect of High Streets and argued about what could or should be done to increase its attractiveness in the local markets to ensure its stable growth and revival. As the uses of high technology Smartphone and tablet devices have increased, a new battle has started between traditional shopping trends and cyber warehousing to obtain customer’s attention and likewise, capture a larger market share (Iqbal, 2011). High Street sales volume surprisingly decreased in the end of December 2013 as consumers were observed to prefer modern day shopping malls to the small High Street shops for their Christmas shopping. It was witnessed according to a survey that non-food sales dropped 4.1% in Britain’s High Street along with a 5.9% fall in fashion buying, while on the other hand online shopping jumped 25%, which further proves the fact (Farrell, 2013). Hence, it can be argued that in Britain, the high street shops have been facing serious problems in coping with the changes observed in consumers’ needs as per the 21st century marketing trend. For example, consumers today prefer shopping through e-commerce facilities, which not only gives them the advantage of cost effective and time efficient shopping experience but also suffices their need through a variety of options, irrespective of geographic and economic barriers. It is in this context that High Street shops are witnessed to lack their competencies and hence, have to face a steep decline in their sales volume (Veash, 2014). With the rise in the contemporary shopping trends, it was further observed that customers were facing problems in obtaining adequate information about the comparative features of the products/services they wish to purchase. At often instances, such information were unavailable from the small shop keepers in the High Streets, which further led to customer inconveniences when they felt the need to compare their chosen product(s) with a better option. This particular aspect can also be stated as a major advantage gained by contemporary shopping malls to High Street shopkeepers. Sorting products as per the customers’ preferences and needs in a time efficient manner has been further contributing to the declining demand for High Street shops. Illustratively, as was observed, most of time customers had to face considerable limitations when purchasing garment products due to the lack of proper arrangements in the small shops of the High Street. Price tags were also found to be misplaced, which further hindered the customer conveniences in the High Street markets. Lack of hospitality may also be termed as another key reason for the change in consumer’s choice (Iqbal, 2011). From a critical point of view, perhaps these factors might have led to the diminishing demands for High Street shops and might have been the reason behind the discontinuation of these shops in recent time. There also many other reasons have played a crucial role behind the fall-down of high street in recent time. Over supply may be accounted as one of those reasons, which led the small High Street shops towards losses in every business circle and finally pushed the retail shop to close down owing to rising warehousing costs and falling demands in the plight of the rising e-commerce trend (Portars, 2011). Particular short falls are also observable in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) conduct of these High Street entrepreneurs. In the current market scenario, it is highly essential to build a healthy relation between suppliers and buyers. The importance of supply chain and small retailer bonding is very essential to obtain customer loyalty and therefore, preserve efficiency in terms of sales volume (Portars, 2011). In case of new entrance and existing rivalry may become a threat for any small High Street shop. In this context, illustration can be drawn from an incident that took place in Britain’s High Street as on December 2013. During this festive month, Marks & Spencer, a reputed global retain company, offered a 20% discount in-store on non-food items for holders of online vouchers. To face the competition, another globally reputed retailer, John Lewis, also offered 20% discount on many items (Farrell, 2013). As a result, both of the shops may have enjoyed a slim amount of profit during that period, but because majority of customers preferred visiting the large shopping malls in comparison to the High Street shops, many of those shops had to witness a shut down. Adding to the hardships of High Street shops, because these shops were somewhat incapable to offer discounts at such a high rate. Availability of substitute goods is also termed as an effective reason behind the downfall of high street stores (House of Common, 2006). Furthermore, there are a few external effects, which can also be accounted as a reason for the downfall of the retail market. For instance, property cost is often regarded as the second largest cost of retail in the High Street shops. It was observed earlier that most of the retail shops had to close-down due to the increasing burden of rents and rates (Veash, 2014). From an overall perspective, these reasons, either directly or indirectly, can be related with the uncertainty of British High Street shops in the near future. Nevertheless, chances and scope for the high street to engage in appropriate marketing practice is still possible with few suggestive innovative measures and reformation of its business model. Studying the above facts, it is suggestible that the High Street shops focus on encouraging customers’ conveniences. It will certainly act as a key to gaining better customer loyalty and increasing customer demand within these shops, as adding more significance to customer convenience will offer the shops to build better interaction with the customers and persuade them for repeat purchases (Wixcey, 2013). Furthermore, government can also take a leadership role in encouraging greater number of High Street entrepreneurs to establish their shops in Britain through funding aids and tax benefits (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2013). Additionally, High Street shops would require serving quality goods among the buyers wherein quality of stores and product brand shall be quite effective in attracting the consumers mind substantially (House of Common, 2006). As discussed earlier about changes observed in customers’ choices, the High Street shops shall also have to focus on practice e-commerce ventures offering well-sorted services to different customers. It is worth mentioning in this context that nowadays people choose to buy quality products from well-known brands. Range of desired goods should therefore be available in these High Street retail markets to minimise challenges for these shops to attract the adequate attention of its customers and practice daily marketing in a sustainable manner. Including all of these issues customer service and environmental responsibility is required to grab the attention from the people (Veash, 2014). Change of focus may also be referred as a solution for high street shops. Accordingly, High Street shops can collectively build environment or a shopping community that would not only provide the customers with the opportunity to relax but also enjoy shopping through physical appearances rather than through online (Wixcey, 2013). Bringing new strategic measures, through service-oriented innovation is also essentially required to secure the long run competency and sustainability of the high street retail shops. Investment is also a key factor for every business firm, owing to which, in case of High Street shops, it is required to bring investors or investments for recovering their situation from the downfall (Portars, 2011). Conclusively, it can be asserted that irrespective of the downfall in the recent time, High Street retail sector can engage in appropriate marketing practice by keeping the focus on their business model, which essentially requires continuous innovation and restructuring in the current market scenario. Therefore, the primary objective has to be encouraging young people to step ahead and take the entrepreneurial challenge in these High Street shops, which can be done through the leadership participation of the government within the local urbanised regions. The secondary objective of High Street shops should be tied with the increase of footfalls to the local market by encouraging the local community to conduct their shopping in these market areas. References Department for Communities and Local Government, 2013. Encouraging Shoppers to the Town with Markets. The Future of High Streets. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/211536/Future_of_High_Street_-_Progress_Since_the_Portas_Review_-revised.pdf [Accessed March 25, 2014]. English Heritage, 2013. The Changing Face of the High Street: Decline and Revival. A Review of Retail and Town Centre Issues in Historic Areas, pp. 1-68. Farrell, S., 2013. High-Street Prices Cut as Consumer Sales Fall in First Week of December. The Guardian. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/13/high-street-price-cuts-consumer-spending-falls-christmas [Accessed March 25, 2014]. House of Common, 2006. Current Trend. All-Party Parliamentary Group for Small Shop. [Online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/15_02_06_highstreet.pdf [Accessed March 25, 2014]. Iqbal, M., 2011. 9 Observations on the Retail Shopping Experience. The Consumer and Leadership Blog. [Online] Available at: http://thecustomerblog.co.uk/2011/07/19/9-observations-on-the-retail-shopping-experience/ [Accessed March 25, 2014]. Portars, M., 2013. The Downward Spiral of Decline on the High Street. The Portas Review An Independent Review Into The Future Of Our High Streets. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6292/2081646.pdf [Accessed March 25, 2014]. Veash, P., 2014. High Street Banks must play Digital Catch Up. The Wall. [Online] Available at: http://wallblog.co.uk/2014/01/21/high-street-banks-must-play-digital-catch-up [Accessed March 25, 2014]. Wixcey, N., 2013. Executive Summary. The Deloitte Consumer Review Reinventing the Role of the High Street. [Online] Available at: http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedKingdom/Local%20Assets/Documents/Industries/Consumer%20Business/uk-cb-consumer-review-edition-6.pdf [Accessed March 25, 2014]. Read More