PwC has revealed the extent to which the high street is currently changing. According to a report they’ve published, 28 shops a day are closing and things are likely to get worse before they get better. Since the turn of the year, the pace of closures has accelerated from 20 a day at the end of last year. Headlines have been grabbed by HMV’s difficulties and there’s a general feeling of doom and gloom in our shopping centres.
But they say the night is darkest just before the dawn, and this could be true of the current trend on the high street. We’ve talked about this in the past and recently spoke to 500 CIOs with 88 per cent of them telling us more modern technology introduced over the past twelve months is having an impact on making shops more attractive to consumers. Indeed over a third...
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In September the estimated average weekly spend across retail outlets soared to around £6.6 billion. But retailers are still missing out on a massive £507.8 million currently being eaten up by cyber stores.
With Christmas just around the corner consumers are eager to get their hands on the most in demand gifts, but is the lack of technology in stores slowing shoppers down and driving them to make purchases online? Over two thirds of CIOs working in retail have told us they’d love to see more technology in shops to help sales in months leading to Christmas.
The technology’s out there. With more and more people carrying around smart phones these days there’s the potential to use QR Codes to draw customers into stores without them being overwhelmed by long lines at the check-out. There are som...
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It may only be early November, but many shoppers have already started their Christmas shopping with gusto in a bid to beat the last minute rush come December. With online sales making up a significant chunk of all retail revenue in the UK, it’s no surprise that one in seven people plan to do all of their Christmas shopping online this year, according to HSBC.
As some shoppers are moving away from the high street in search of cheaper bargains online it’s vital that retailers do all that they can to deliver a fantastic shopping experience in-store. Whilst offering customers mince pies and mulled wine is always a winner, customers are likely to be more impressed if shop workers go out of their way to provide excellent service.
The same is of course true for online retailers. Although it may be...
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Whether it’s great deals online or eye catching window displays, retailers are pulling out all the stops to try and entice shoppers this Christmas. This is particularly apparent on London’s world famous Oxford Street, where many of the flagship stores are using technology to deliver a greater shopping experience to their customers.
Several initiatives to improve the customer experience caught our eye when we took a stroll down the capital’s most famous shopping street. We found Niketown attendants taking payments on mobile devices to cut down queuing times and in Debenhams we discovered that they’re running a ”free coffee Friday” offer via the location-based social network FourSquare. Even John Lewis is getting in on the act, having recently announced plans to offer free Wi-Fi to shoppers i...
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