Gloomy predictions about the future of the high street have been a common theme in the news over the last few years. A host of well-known brands are either gone or seem to be struggling against the modern shopper’s thirst for online options.

In the past year alone, high street stores covering a vast range of sectors have closed completely, from Maplin to Toys R Us. It seems time, then, to ask if the high street is really doomed and what, if anything, can be done about it?

The Closures and The Struggles

The first sign for many that the high street might not be as healthy as it once was came back in 2008, when high street stalwart Woolworths unexpectedly announced closure of all of its 807 storefronts. The result was job losses of 27,000 and a public wondering if this was a sign of things to come or simply the result of Woolworths failure to adapt to a modern marketplace. It turns out the answer could actually be both.

Since then, the UK high street has seen small spikes of reprieve, but internet shopping has only become more popular. This has resulted in an attendant, large drip in high street profits. In the last year alone, Maplin, Toys R Us, Mothercare, Prezzo and Carpetright have all closed, showing how the high street crisis reaches across all kinds of businesses. Within the last month, Poundworld has announced the appointment of administrators, and House of Fraser has outlined the need to close stores and cut costs. Only in the last week has New Look revealed a £243 million loss for the last financial year.

BDO, which monitors high street sales month to month, revealed that high street sales were down in May 2018 by 2.2 percent over last year, showing that it is now 8 months since like-for-like sales have grown by 1-percent or more.

The Possible Solutions

Business rates are a big area of contention currently, and a lowering could have real benefits. Labour has repeatedly stated that the business rates system is unfair and penalises brick and mortar stores, whilst online retailers are largely unaffected. The government increased business rates back in April – for the second time in two years. The major issue is that major online retailers like Amazon use out of town warehouses, which have much lower property values that city centre retailers. This has led many business leaders to point out the issue and decry it as unfair.

Beyond this, high street businesses will have to focus their attention on the online market, hoping they can offer in-house deals and service that will tempt online shoppers away from super-sized retailers like Amazon. High street retailers will have to get serious about their online offerings, or they may have nothing to offer at all. 

If your retail business needs a retail overdraft to help finance your growth plans, contact us to find out how we can help.

The flurry of stories about collapsing high street stores and the growth of e-commerce is leading many people to draw the conclusion that bricks and mortar retail is dead.

Last year in the UK we saw 5,855 high street stores close, with fashion and footwear outlets being the hardest hit according to statistics compiled by The Local Data Company.

The problem is one that is getting progressively worse, and this year both Toys R Us and Maplin buckled under mounting pressures, resulting in the loss of over 5,000 jobs.

E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of products and services online and offers both consumers and businesses a plethora of benefits.

For businesses, e-commerce gives them the ability to overcome geographical locations and take advantage of global markets while also gaining new custom thanks to the potential of search engine visibility.

So, in an ever-expanding digital society, how can retail stores continue to compete?

Personalize customer interactions

Sure, e-commerce platforms can offer customers speed and accessibility in equal measure, but one thing that they struggle to provide is that personal touch.

Many people that visit retail shops are looking for an experience, so it’s important for business owners to instil this idea into their workforce. Ensuring that every single employee is engaged while they are at work, are knowledgeable of their product range and are approaching customers to offer recommendations and support all help to strengthen interactions.

Up the ante with merchandise

If retail stores really want to compete, they need to be offering their customers something that they won’t be able to find elsewhere. Exclusivity is a great USP and is guaranteed to keep customers coming back for more. Brands could even consider making their own merchandise which could be personalised with designs and colours.

Offer flexible payment

Some online stores have already cottoned onto the benefits of this, with leading e-commerce site ASOS having fairly recently teamed up with Klarna to give shoppers the option to buy now and pay later. There’s no reason why bricks and mortar stores shouldn’t follow suit though. Partial payments, split payment and layaways are all options that businesses could consider.

Go online

This doesn’t mean stores should throw in the towel and funnel all of their energy into their website, but instead means that stores should recognize the potential of having some sort of online platform. Luckily there are many cloud-based solutions offering up templates and other tools to make creating a website relatively easy. 

As an SME, remaining digitally present is of the utmost importance if your business is going to thrive and facilitate growth.

In our electronically driven era, most people will go online to gauge information about products and services that they are interested in, so having a strong online presence is going to help your business grow as well as ensuring that you remain competitive and keep attracting new custom.

It’s estimated that 2.5 billion people will be using smartphones by 2019, so engaging with apps is also important if an SME is going to be successful.

Read on to find out about five of the best apps for SMEs at present.

NowFloats

For most consumer-focused businesses, setting up an online store is imperative if they are going to increase their sales and stay ahead of the competition. Luckily, technology firm NowFloats makes this possible and can help companies by taking care of all of their online needs. Whether it’s helping them to achieve an online presence, ensuring they meet SEO requirements or helping them to find relevant leads for content updates, NowFloats can help SMEs get to where they need to be online.

Shopmatic   

Founded in 2014, Shopmatic’s headquarters are in Singapore but also has offices in Gurgaon and Bangalore, India. The international e-commerce company has been launched to help business owners sell their products and services online. From developing a cutting-edge web store to listing their business on social media channels, Shopmatic ensures that businesses effectively manage everything that they need to in order to grow their business.

Podio

As an SME, one of the most important things that you can do is stay on top of your projects and tasks. Podio is a useful app that helps you to effectively manage leads and clients, diary dates and expenses, ensuring that you always stay on top of things and don’t let anything slip your mind when the workload is piling up.

Bufferapp

Effective and timely posting on your social media channels can help you to increase engagement and grow your brand, and with the use of this app you can ensure that your posts are always sent out at the right time. Bufferapp will schedule tweets and updates for you at the most opportune times while you continue with other pressing tasks.

Gratitude

Sometimes a little bit of reflection at the end of the working day is all you need to ensure that your mindset stays positive. Gratitude helps with this by encouraging users to write down five good things that have happened throughout the day.