Archive for the ‘retailers’ Category

There’s definately something about Mary !”

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

Mary Takes on the High Street

Mary Takes on the High Street

Its the biggest retail news since woollies closed its doors.

Mary Portas has been asked by the Government to take a look at our ailing high streets…. (about time too, i can hear you chorus) As she says, “the city centre picture is one of steep decline. Three years ago six per cent of high street shops were vacant; by the end of last year the figure had grown to 14 per cent. At this rate, in two years’ time, more than a third of city centre shops will be boarded up, But it’s not just the shops that are going from our high streets; banks and post offices are disappearing too. As they go, we lose a feeling of community because the high street is the heart of a town. And, as high streets empty, the crime rate increases.”

If you’re nodding your head in agreement, the question really is, what should we be doing ? Are the high streets worth saving, or are we just entering a new digital age and we all just need to move on and make space for the big retailers ….? What do you think we should do to revive the high street ? Or shouldn’t we bother, is it a case of change or die ?

Mary is asking for our opinions, and this is as good a time as any to add your comments into the pot - hopefully something good will come of it, maybe she’ll be able to persuade landlords that upward only rent reviews and quarterly rents payable in advance aren’t such a cool option…?

You can follow Mary’s quest on her website www.maryportas.com Here’s an extract from there to get you in the mood

In May this year, I was challenged by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to undertake an independent review on the Future of the High Street – to help ‘bring back the bustle’ to our town centres.

And with town centre vacany rates doubling over the last two years, the need to take action to save our high streets has never been starker.

I am calling on business, local authorities and shoppers to contribute their ideas on how we can halt this decline in its tracks and create town centres that we can all be proud of.

If you’ve got something to say about the state of our high streets – be it an observation, insight, initiative or idea – please add your own contribution to the debate.

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Posted in Emerging trends, Independent retailers, Mary Portas, Questions to ask, The High Street, Uncategorized, consumer trends, retailers | 1 Comment »

Optimism and achievement (sunglasses in the rain)

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Optimists get the job done

Optimists get the job done

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence”
Helen Keller

This month has had it all, sunny weather, bank holidays and of course, the Royal Wedding. Whether you’re an ardent royalist or more of a take it or leave it person, you have to admit that we staged a spectacular event, watched by millions, or was it billions ? We do know how to throw a party and celebrate. The wedding, the weather and the bank holidays definitely cheered everyone up a bit.
The really interesting thing about this is that people act differently because they feel differently. Feelings aren’t supposed to be a big part of business, it’s supposed to be about logical thought and proven formulas – in a hold on, here comes the science kind of thing. But in reality how we feel is a massive determining factor in how we behave.

Of course sunny weather and bank holidays aren’t great news for all retailers, but generally sunny weather brings out shoppers, we buy food for the barbeques, for picnics, products to sort our gardens out for summer and of course the latest fashions…

On a more general level how we feel is one of the most important factors in determining our success.

An ability to generate positive thoughts will enable you to do much more than if you’re constantly in a state of doom – the only thing you’ll be able to do from there, is talk yourself out of pretty much anything.

I had a real close up look at this scenario myself recently. I had an idea to promote my city centre – it’s a good idea, that’s pretty much what you need to know. I have no sausage of a clue how to put it into practice, but I’m resourceful, so I’ll figure it out in the next few weeks.

As you do, I discussed my brilliant new idea with some of those closest to me – some were enthusiastic, some were positive (but didn’t want me to fall on my face) and some were downright sceptical !
Which seemed rather funny to me. I can already see my project working, I already know what it’s going to look like, how it’s going to be displayed and who’ll like it (and who won’t) so in my head it’s a done deal. Now I just have to figure out the logistics. So it will happen. This idea and the reception to it from those around me is what sparked this post.

To achieve big things in life, you have to finish them before you can start them… whoa there… what am I talking about – is that even possible ?

Take an example – building a house, if you’re going to build a house you’d better have sat with a planner or architect first, or how would you know what you’re going to build. So, once you have the picture of the house in your head, and you’ve worked out the details – only then can you buy the bricks and commit to the building process.

Same with my idea… Is this ridiculous optimism? I’d say no, it’s a certainty. Doom, gloom and the state of the economy are no reason not to start a project, in fact they’re probably more of a reason.

The dictionary definition of Optimism is” a disposition or tendency to look on the more favourable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favourable outcome”

Optimistic people get things started, advertised, marketed and sold. In a culture where we’re conditioned to spend a lot of our time moaning, Optimism breaks the mould and does a little dance.
Optimists create their own circumstances – others wait for them to happen – they feel good when its sunny, or they have a holiday, or their sports team wins, ie they’re influenced by external events, which isn’t a great place to be – Passing the power to feel good in your life over to a possibly occurring external event isn’t going to make you feel great consistently.

I’m not talking about the ridiculous Pollyanna type of optimism or wearing sunglasses in the rain – I’m talking about the state of mind that gets the job done, whether you just lost a big sale, google changed the algorithym rankings again and your website slipped down the rankings, or your latest employee turned out to be a real numpty. The belief that makes you sit down, look at what happened and then go back to work and figure out what you need to do to get a different result next time.

It all comes down to focus – Deciding where you’re going, what you’re going to do to get there and then taking some action to get those results….

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Posted in Positive mental attitude, Retailing in a recession, Uncategorized, optimism, retailers | No Comments »

Forward motion….

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Going forward

Going forward

So we’re sliding into February, but most of us are still gingerly feeling our way into the New Year, apprehensive about what it’s going to bring. The good news is scant, there’s job cuts, price rises on just about everything, and the weather is miserable and damp, nothing exciting to really put a spring in your step.

If your New Year’s resolutions have already taken a bit of a beating, how about looking forward into 2011 and putting some forward motion into it.
What’s forward motion? Well, It’s basically movement towards something – the something is up to you. Towards a goal, or an opportunity or a decision, the movement is the important part. This year looks like the big toughie for retail, so faced with a choice of staying where we are and doing what we’ve always done, we just have to keep moving forward. Choose forward motion !

Of course, forward motion might not always be the best choice, obviously you’re going to make a few duff decisions along the way, but at least you’ll be making them. In our frantically paced world with so much information readily available, it’s still hard to get all the information we need to make a secure decision, so we agonise over the details. In reality our gut decisions are usually the right ones, but they’re hard to justify.

The more choices we have the harder it is to make a decision. So I’m advocating that it’s better to make the best possible decision you can with the information you have available, comfortable in the knowledge that if you’ve stuffed it up this time, you can choose something else next time.

When in doubt… choose forward motion !

There’s so much information available, that ultimately it just becomes a personal choice of what to focus on. Why focus on the negatives, which are often exaggerated, instead of the positives?
There are two main reasons. Firstly, we tend to focus on the sensational and the dangerous. One sensational anecdote about a store robbery or completely outrageous customer, outweighs a year’s worth of “I went to work and it was pretty much the same as usual.”

Secondly, choosing to focus on the negatives gives everyone else an excuse not to pursue big dreams and goals either.
There are plenty of people who’ll feed your fears and worries, but really, often they’re talking more about themselves and their lives than what’s good for you…. Psychologists call this a process of projecting, ie they project their fears onto you, but the double whammy is that this keeps you in your place and ultimately reaffirms their view again because you didn’t move on either !

If you’re looking for an excuse not to do something, you really don’t have to look far. Playing it safe is not usually a mockable choice - Everyone understands it.
But all things considered, good things can come from bad experiences too, in fact that’s often where we learn the most.

So, if you’re still prevaricating and pontificating on why you can’t change anything in 2011, just consider the following success stories

• Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace while living in a small house with his wife and thirteen children. Yes, that’s thirteen children !

• Walt Disney was a failed, bankrupt, small-time advertisement man before he came up with Mickey and friends.

• J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter whilst on the dole. Her first book was rejected by twelve publishers.

• e.e. cumming’s first book of poetry was rejected by fifteen publishers. He self-published it, and well, you know the rest…

• Abraham Lincoln lost multiple jobs, went bankrupt, and failed in numerous bids for public office before being sworn in as the 16th President of the United States.

• Mary Anne Evans living in truly sexist times, had to change her pen name to George Eliot, whereupon she became one of the most beloved English novelists of all time.

Dissatisfaction with something, such as your shop or your accountant for example isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Dissatisfaction can be a force for change.

Dissatisfaction results “from contemplating what falls short of our wishes or expectations” The funny thing here is that we’ve all got these wishes or expectations but we don’t usually acknowledge them, maybe we’re not even aware of them.

So, my next question, to keep the forward motion, well, in motion really, is :

What are you working on?

Hopefully, you’re working on something that’s big, that’s going to take you to the next level, that gets you excited, so excited that you can’t wait to tell everyone about it.

No matter what your work is, no matter what you do, there’s a way to create a project that has you buzzing with excitement about it, where something big, fun and new that might make a difference is just around the corner….

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Posted in Challenge, Change, Knowledge, Positive mental attitude, Strategy, Uncategorized, game, goals, learning, negativity, recession, retailers, screw it up | No Comments »

Cambridge wins clone town award !

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

What's on your high street ?

What's on your high street ?

In September the New Economics Foundation(NEF) results were published on the state of Britain’s high streets. The think tank looked at 117 town centres right across England, and the shops represented on their high streets. They counted the number of independent shops and the variety and using a simple formula they came up with list of the least diverse high streets.

Cambridge(scoring 11.6) was named the worst “clone town” In Britain, despite its beautiful colleges, impressive architecture and its ancient university status. Its historic streets are dominated by national chain stores.

NEF remarked that Cambridge was” the worst example of the trend for British High Streets to look identical, all populated by the same small selection of major retailers”

The report’s author said “Cambridge’s distinctive character still remains, but its high street is now no different from that in Exeter, Reading or Oxford.”
He added that the homogenity of the high street was brought about, in part by the recession. Since most of the shops are owned by the colleges, as they’ve needed to raise money, they’ve either sold them off, or increased rents to an extent that pushes out independent retailers.

For those of you of a curious disposition, you can download the survey from the site at www.neweconomics.org and carry out your own survey on your own local high street to see how it fares. Are you a Clone town, or a home town? That’s one that’s distinctive and recognisable as a unique place

In case you’re wondering Whitstable, a fishing port on the Kent coast had the most diverse high street scoring an impressive 92.1 on the diversity scale.

So what does this have to do with me, I hear you asking…? Well, local independent shops really are crucial for local economies. If you have a business in your town, any money that you earn from your business goes round in the local economy at least two to four times. That goes from things like ordering an extension from another local business, or getting your packaging made locally for example – If the money stays local rather than being wired out each night to a central head office you can see that it makes for more local income, wealth and ultimately more jobs.

On the plus side, NEF found that the diversity of Britain’s high streets had not materially deteriorated since 2005 when it last conducted its survey. However, that was partly because many of the big names, including Borders, Woolworths and Zavvi had collapsed into administration, so it’s not exactly brilliant news.

On a final note, the report concluded that “A bland homogeneity and encroaching vacant premises characterise the city’s (Cambridge’s) shopping centre,” and you’ve got to ask yourself, what does that say about other high streets then ?

I can’t be alone in thinking that could have been written about many high streets up and down the country ?

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Posted in Emerging trends, Independent retailers, Uncategorized, retailers | No Comments »

Will the World Cup benefit retailers ?

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Long live the Vuvuzelas
It’s that time again. Every four years we’re infected with world cup fever as a wave of patriotism sweeps our nation. Even David Cameron has announced that Downing Street will fly the flag for England!

So now that the tournament has kicked off, our supermarkets, websites and shops are all competing to get in on the action, but will it benefit everyone?

According to polls, UK retail expenditure is expected to receive a £1.3bn boost during this summer’s World Cup in South Africa, so that’s the good news. But the bad news is that the uplift will only be in certain retail sub-sectors and it goes without saying that this increase in sales relies upon the success of the England team at the tournament and the ensuing feel good factor this generates, so I guess there’ll be a few fingers and toes crossed over the next few weeks.

Unfair as it might seem, the benefits of the world cup aren’t evenly spread. Town centres will mostly suffer from declining footfall, with department stores in particular being the worst affected as shoppers stay home for the games and spend their money elsewhere (although personally we always see a surge in football widows enjoying the quiet aisles during games)

There’ll be extra money spent on food and drink, so our supermarkets are the big winners here as people have their world cup parties – barbeque sales are soaring! While most supermarkets are using alcohol sales as a way to increase footfall but of course they’re cutting their margins to do so.

TV’s are another big spend area, with retailers such as Curry’s offering money back for every goal England score ! In the 2006 tournament the new flat screen TVs made electrical retailers a lot of money, but despite the emergence of 3D & LED televisions these are still not mass market enough for impulse purchases given the poor state of the economy. Still, there’s enough hype to keep electrical retailers very happy.

Retailers like Sainsburys are offering their staff world cup hours, which is one way to cut down on absenteeism. While M & S have the world cup winners from 1966 as the front men for their ad campaign which is a nice touch. Although my favourite product is still the B & Q world cup garden gnome – its one of those things you never knew you wanted till you saw it – trust me !

Excitement over the World Cup and better weather boosted high street sales last month but generally consumers are still watching their spending and waiting to see if they’ll be affected by the cuts that our new government is making clear are going to impact us all.

So we’re talking about a prolonged period of yet more uncertainty for business owners. The BRC is promoting cuts in spending, not tax or VAT increases. Analysts predict that raising the VAT rate to 20% would raise around £11.5 billion a year for the nations finances which must surely be tempting them ?

So, while you could never call me a football fan, I was inspired by the enthusiasm and pride of the South African people at the opening ceremony and the games since, and that’s something I wish we saw more of here in the UK.

Long live the Vuvuzelas !

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Swine flu, retail and you !

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Swine flu

Swine flu

Sometimes in retail you’ve really got to wonder what’s going to come at you next? July & August were the months of the Swine flu crisis eroding consumer confidence.

Inspired by yet more sensationalist jounalism, the Swine flu pandemic panic swept across the country. Now, we all know that no more people are dying of Swine flu than normal seasonal flu, and if you’re vaguely healthy you don’t have much to worry about, yet this would be hard to believe from the headlines.

All year we’ve had to put up with all the scare stories about the economy terrorising everyone and now its another juicy story, with half the population smothering themselves in antiseptic handwipes (bet their sales results are wicked) As a result, footfall has been down, and as we all know you can’t sell stuff to people who aren’t in your shop. (although online retailers aren’t complaining !)

Flu in any of its forms is not going to quietly depart, so how many sick days can the nation take, hiding under the collective duvet trying to avoid it? Rising sick days isn’t a groovy prospect for retailers – It reduces customer service, possibly opening hours and sensationalist scare stories keep consumers away from usually crowded shopping areas, so most businesses would welcome a little more balanced reporting perspective.

So, where’s the good news ? Probably the best news around for importers & retailers is the recovery of the pound. In July 2008 the pound was worth $2.00, but by January of this year its value had sunk to $1.35 (which is a twenty three year low, just to put this in perspective) Earlier this month it recovered to $1.70, which is an absolute lifeline in a difficult year for smaller retailers and importers.

The big question now is whether the pound’s recovery will be a sustained one…?
Here’s hoping….!

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Posted in Independent retailers, Swine fever, Uncategorized, money, retailers | No Comments »

ebay calls on EU policy makers

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

ebay flexes its muscle

ebay flexes its muscle

For those of us with with an online presence as well as bricks and mortar shops, ebay have been starting their own small (or not so small really) revolution against brand owners….

If this doesn’t affect you now, it may in the future, as a seller, brand owner or manufacturer.

Basically the story goes something like this – ebay was created on the foundation that people could be empowered by building a global trading platform where almost anyone could buy or sell almost anything. Ebay feel that that this foundation is now under threat from some brand owners and manufacturers who are trying to turn back the clock by blocking the sale of their products on online marketplaces and other websites across the EU.

The bottom line here is the right of sellers to compete fairly in the online market place and the right of buyers to be able to access the best possible deals from the widest array of goods.

Some of the not so happy brand owners have argued that their reluctance is to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods on ebay among other things,(and you might think they have a point) but ebay argue that their reluctance to have their brands hosted on ebay amounts to unfair trading practices and they’re calling on EU policymakers to amend the EU competition law to stop these “unfair” trading practices.

E-bay’s position is that brand owners have “descriminated against them”, and I’m sure that many of us remember the Tesco grey market war with Levi’s back in 2001. Levi’s won that round, with the European court ruling that trademark holders can stop businesses importing their products from outside the EU and then selling them without the trademark holder’s OK.

As a manufacturer and brand owner who has veto’d retailers from selling some of our more exclusive brands on e-bay and similar sites, this is squaring up to be an interesting fight, both sides have power and money, but my bet is that intellectual copyright will win out over the rights of the consumer – for now at least.

But it might be worth keeping an eye on this particular battle ground because if the rules are rewritten then selling goods over the internet is going to enter a new phase…

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Posted in Emerging trends, Protect your brand, ebay, retailers | No Comments »

What’s your signature…?

Friday, May 15th, 2009

What's your signature...?

What's your signature...?

Every job bears the signature of the person that did it !

Oooh a scary thought this one ! When you come to think about it, every job you do bears your signature…. whether its emptying the bins, putting descriptions to images on your website, or employing people.

So, the real question behind this one, is do you think other people notice what you do and how you do it? The answer is of course, nine times out of ten a resounding yes !

If you gossip about customers behind their backs
If you don’t pay attention to what people are saying
If you argue with a customer instead of delighting them
If you hide behind email
If you blur the truth a little
If you network to get not to give
If you do as little as you can get away with…

Then the customers already know who you are, because what you say is only 20% of the picture, what you do is the other 80%.

Its easy to say stuff, not so easy to do stuff…… but its what you do that makes you who you are……

What’s your signature ?

What’re your staff’s signatures like?

What’s your shop signature ?

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Happy Easter Egg-xess

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Happy Easter chuck !

Happy Easter chuck !

Let’s be honest its kind of a strange holiday and a difficult sell, unless you’ve bought up all the Woollies Easter Eggs…!

When you delve into the background of this Christian festival, there’s a few surprises…. “Eastre” was actually a pagan figure, celebrated as the Goddess of Spring. A festival called Eastre was apparently held during the spring equinox by Pagan people to honour her. The goddess Eastre’s earthly symbol was the rabbit, which was also known as a symbol of fertility. So now I get the bunny connection, but how did we get from there to chocolate eggs?

Well, most ancient races around the world had similar spring festivals to celebrate the birth of the year, The Egg, as a symbol of fertility and re-birth, has been associated with these rites from the earliest times.

So when the Pagans arrived here in about the 5th century AD, the festival came with them along with their rituals. When the Saxons converted to Christianity and started to celebrate the death and the resurrection of Christ, it coincided with Eostre, so that’s what the early church in Britain called the celebration, Eostre or Easter in modern English. So that’s the history, here comes the sales… or do they?

The media is full of stories about Easter being a huge turning point in retailers calendars… Really? Its news to me. OK, maybe if you sell Sofas I can see its huge, but for the rest of us, its not mega….. It’s nice to celebrate the advent of Spring and to put some bright cheerful props around the shop, but talk about focusing on the positive. There’s some problems with creating a sales phenomenon around Easter….

Easter has rabbits and eggs – not an easy sell…! Rabbits are normally portrayed as either a bit dumb, or sex crazy…. Bugs Bunny doesn’t wear any trousers – I rest my case !

Everything that’s celebrated around Easter happens in the morning and we all know that nothing good for commerce happens before noon !

There’s no Easter songs? So you can’t really ramp up the marketing…. Christmas has reams of songs, we all know them by heart. Easter has…..?

Finally, the focus is on a corpse coming back to life…. Not cute! – Amazing, yes. Cute – No !

So I think we can agree Easter is a tough sell, pretty, but tough. But if it increases footfall then who’s complaining?

One of the things i’ve noticed about Easter this year is the choice on offer, you can get vegan eggs, protein free eggs, fairly traded eggs, green eggs, diabetic eggs, to name just a few. I’m old enough to remember when there were three choices and one of them was Smarties! So maybe the lesson here is how to differentiate your offering and how the market is evolving…. oh and offering choice?

So that’s the cynic in me satiated, but in the spirit of Easter, which is above all a story of hope, with the promise of new beginnings, lets not dwell on the bad stuff and instead lets think about Spring arriving and what we can create for this new season….

And if that all seems too sweet to be true, here’s my Easter gift to you: A get-out-of-jail-free carbohydrate card.

Apparently there’s a range of benefits and nutritious surprises found in chocolate. The key is learning to choose the right type and eating the right amount (and 50 grams is pretty decent) so now you can feel virtuous devouring it.

Now for another bite of that pair of ears on my dark chocolate Lindt bunny.

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Posted in Easter, Sales, chickens and eggs, retailers | No Comments »