The Retailer Winter edition_2020

Experiential retailing In short, shops need something to temp customers away from online retailing. With footfall continuing to disappoint stores need to offer an experience, content and interaction that just cannot be replicated online. Nespresso secures brand interaction as its offers a coffee, Hotel Chocolat delivers indulgence via in-store restaurants and Boots provides a human connection with on-the-spot advice. Advisers need to understand what physical retailing now needs to achieve in order to distinguish itself in a time-poor society. A simple example – even a retailer of hiking equipment now needs an in-store café. It creates a destination for shoppers, increases dwell time and opens up opportunities to interact. What about use restrictions, planning requirements, extraction rights, external seating licences? All covered? Customer focus Every retailer wants to delight their customers and make every element of the customer experience better. Does the service you receive from your professional advisers reflect the values and principles of your retail businesses? Working with retail clients should be about forging a team dynamic, being creative and thriving under challenge. Retail has always been a sector of constant change. The need to anticipate shifts in consumer behaviour has meant that the most nimble retailers have been the most successful. In a time of unprecedented structural reinvention, even the great and good of retail have been left exhausted by the pace and scale of evolution in the sector. Retailers have analysed, reflected, experimented, re-stocked and re-invented. Were their professional advisers also paying attention?

GRAEME BRADSHAW // graeme.bradshaw@burnesspaull.com //0141 273 6976

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