
5 minute read
Retail Opinion - John Ryan forecasts a

The future is looking bright




So, lockdown is coming to an end. The shops are open, and we may be off on holiday to somewhere sunny this summer, if fortune smiles. But as we begin to look at some form of that it’s possible to trade pretty adequately with fewer branches - fewer but better. Two questions spring from this. If you have more than a single momentum being re-established, it’s hard not to wonder what the shop, does it make sense for this status quo to be maintained in past year has taught us, and whether there are positives as well as light of the changed conditions? Equally, if you do decide that negatives if you happen to be a retailer. operating on a multi-location basis still makes sense, have you
The fi rst thing that’s probably worth saying in this respect is that beaten a path to the door of your landlord/s to enquire politely if you’ve been relatively nimble, everything that can be found in your about the price asked for the properties rented to you? shop also happens to be available online. This may sound like a blinding glimpse of the obvious if you’re a large retailer (and more often than not, more is on offer via the web than in-store, other than in the largest branches), but it’s quite surprising how frequently indie toy shops appear not to have been that bothered about the web - pre-pandemic at least. “ A while back, many were predicting the death of the high street. It may be Of course, for those who own the freehold of the store from which they trade, this may be a less pressing matter. But there’s also the vexed question of how you treat your suppliers and whether some kind of quid pro quo is involved: 60-day payment is pretty standard and 90 is not unheard of. Is it worthwhile, if you manage to pull off the trick of
Yet it’s hardly been a struggle to work out that diminished, but turning over your stock reasonably quickly, asking if your shop has been closed and you have a that doesn’t mean your suppliers what kind of discount will be given for transactional website (and yes, non-transactional retail we’re mourning its ‘prompt’ 30 days or less, payment? As things stand, sites do exist - think Primark) there’s a fi ghting chance passing. A if you can reduce the cost price, then the result that you might have been able to salvage something Lazarus-like heads straight to the bottom line. from the mess. Indeed, one of the lessons that the last revival seems The fi nal point that we may have learned is year has absolutely banged home is that those retailers likely, and those that people do actually like shopping. Wise heads with halfway decent virtual shops have been able to turn their physical stores into distribution centres. How many shops have you wandered past where there’s been a table at the entrance with a (usually hand-written) sign bearing the message “This is a click that have managed to survive the Covid predations will predicted that while online shopping may have worked as a stopgap measure during lockdown, by the time the shackles were loosened we would, as a nation, be champing at the bit to head down to shops/pubs/eateries, even if the conditions in which and collect point”? The answer is a lot and, if nothing emerge from all of we can do so are still somewhat different. else, it shows that if shoppers can’t get into a store, this stronger than So let’s be positive! It’s been a long
it can be turned into something else that serves the when they ” road to get to where we are, and there same purpose (albeit browsing has not been possible, went into it would appear to be life in our shops physically at least). yet. A while back, many were
And what of the online merchants? What has been remarkable predicting the death of the high street. It over the lockdown period has been the way in which many have used may be diminished, but that doesn’t mean the hiatus to open bricks-and-mortar stores. The high street, it would we’re mourning its passing. A Lazarus-like appear, is attractive to some - even when thoroughfares such as revival seems likely, and those that have Oxford Street have looked like war zones, such has been the scale of managed to survive the Covid predations closures and consequent boarding up that has taken place. will emerge from all of this stronger than
But do online retailers know something that the rest of us when they went into it. don’t? Perhaps. What is apparent is that although they’ve Also worth noting is the fact that, not been opening stores, they’ve been very picky about where to put too fi ne a point on it, at the start premises are located and have been able to strike deals as far of 2020 there was a lot of dead wood as the price of a lease is concerned. They’ve also ensured that around. That’s no longer the case and the they only have a few outposts. This makes sense, as one of the road ahead will be peopled by those with problems for multiples has been that they are, well, multiples. stores that are both viable and places that As a nation we have been overshopped and 2020 has shown shoppers will want to shop. All is not lost.
...for the retailers who survived the past year, says John Ryan
John Ryan is Stores Editor of business magazine Retail Week. He has worked for the title for more than a decade covering store design, visual merchandising and what makes things sell in-store. In a previous life, he was a buyer.

