From the BBC:
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) is warning that High Streets could see 20% of their shops close down within five years as more people turn to the internet for their shopping.I'm not at all sure about that. You're leaving work, you remember you've got a hot date, you aren't going to wait for Amazon to deliver you half a dozen condoms. Likewise, how is a woman going to check the colour of some blusher or the smell of a perfume?
The organisation, which conducts research into retail, technology and crime, says this would equate to 62,000 shops closing down. The CRR believes large areas of the UK's High Streets would become housing. It also says as many as 316,000 workers would lose their jobs.
The CRR says online shopping will continue to expand and the proportion of shopping done via the internet will double to 22%. The report, which was produced by Prof Joshua Bamfield, said the first shops to go would be pharmacies and health and beauty stores. Retailers specialising in music, books, cards, stationery and gifts will be next.
On the other hand, music, books and cards are basically on their last legs. I've started to send these Moonpig cards because, well, I can do the whole job, personalised, from my desk for little more than buying the card + postage.
The backbone of bricks and mortar retailing will always be goods that:
1. Require checking for suitability (smell of perfume, fit of clothes, comfiness of a chair or mattress)
or
2. Are required immediately (quick pint of milk on way home, cup of coffee on way to work)
and
3. Cannot be digitised (music, ebooks, plane tickets)
Record shops are basically knackered - most people will either live with waiting for the CD to be delivered, you don't need to inspect the goods, and many people are going digital. Women's clothes shops, on the other hand, will last for a long time.
7 comments:
I'm in love (in love)
With the girl (with the girl)
Who works the customer helpline on the Amazon complaints department
I did a couple of summers in a record shop. It's not the worst place to work, and you got to talk to a lot of girls.
A small exception in the "music on the high street is dead" is specialist shops, where hanging around/sale of accessories is just as important as the music. I know one place, pub/music shop who are on line soon to start pressing LP's in store. It's a footnote and not going to save the high street, but I think people will figure out new and interesting ideas for things to do with physical locations. FFS apple have huge multi-storey stores selling a range that could fit into a kiosk.
If people's efforts could be untaxed, you'd see much, much more off this ofcourse.
"The CRR believes large areas of the UK's High Streets would become housing."
Even to my recollection, and that's not that long ago, at least two houses on my local High Street were turned into shops, and many, many more shops were houses in the C19th, so this process would simply be turning the clock back, and not very far, at that.
Kj,
You're always going to get the odd niche business in the odd town, because there's always a market for the odd specialist. But you won't have one in each town necessarily.
Apple's an interesting case - the Apple stores were never designed to be shops so much as showrooms. Apple were fed up with the sort of people who were selling their stuff retail - badly set up machines, incorrect advice etc, so they set up their own stores to provide it. And because they charge the same prices as online, they get a sale.
Bayard,
This used to be quite normal. Then planning came along.
There's about 4 pubs in my town trying to convert because well, they're closed, because the smoking ban put them out of business.
TS: absolutely. But where they occur, these type of businesses, while marginal in their direct audience, seem to have a lot of positive externalities with them, makes other run-of-the-mill providers like cafes and convenience stores more attractive and viable.
Re Apple. Yes, it's interesting, and a can be used as an example of the claims that producer control over the retail chain can be a good thing because the producer can internalize marketing. Enter DBC Reed.
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