With hard economic times facing the British public, it’s no wonder that our High Street Retailers are struggling. Even by many of our stores extending their opening times they seem to be unable to recover from recent financial times.
Over the last 6 years it’s estimated that online sales have increased by a staggering 222%. Even with online retailers having physical stores on the high street, shoppers are still taking to the ease of online shopping.
E-Commerce sales (the act of buying and selling through electronic gadgets) is continuing to grow at a steady 9% annually according to IMRG (The Interactive in Media Group). With the sales of electronic mobile devices up by a staggering 129% each year, we have to ask ourselves what is driving the online market?
Well the answer is simple, Prices. Many products that are available on our local High Street can easily be sourced online at a cheaper price. It’s also an easier way of finding a variety of different products from multiple suppliers by simply clicking a button. So how can our High Streets compete to keep their doors open?
A recent line of thinking is that of Omni-Channelling. This is a new concept where by retailers are trying to bridge the gap between online shopping and physically entering a store. High Street giants such as John Lewis have been encouraging customers to purchase products online whilst in-store and then simply collect.
Another innovative way of enticing buyers in is with Digital Labels in stores. Kiddicare, one of Britain’s baby product suppliers has introduced these labels replacing the old time consuming printed versions. Kiddicare claim that this will allow them to stay competitive within the market by being able to reduce their prices promptly should they find identical products cheaper online.
The store also assists their customers by digitally providing QR codes which allows them to research products in greater detail online through the use of their free WI-FI code. This may be the way forward for our High Street chains as the need to stay competitive has never been greater.
