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Learning the Lessons of Lockdown to Encourage Visitors Back to the High Street

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Matt Powell – Director – Revive & Thrive Ltd

Matt has been a director of Revive & Thrive since 2013 and has extensive experience in town centre and high street regeneration and renewal. He has worked on over a dozen business improvement district projects and has supported many other place partnerships to implement improvement projects.


The one advantage that small businesses have had over their national and international rivals over the course of this year has to have been those vital relationships with customers that will have been formed over the life cycles of these businesses.

We’ve spent the last however many years being told that “customer service” is key and that this is the ace in the hand of the indie business but the stark reality is that independents on any high street in any town around the country remain hugely reliant on a footfall count that has fallen off a cliff since March.

Yet, have the challenges facing small businesses and town centres really changed that much? Even before Covid-19, footfall had been steadily in decline and online shopping steadily increasing. Perhaps the pace of change has increased, and it certainly won’t be as easy to rely on events or other footfall generators but the competition for consumers’ pounds is as strong as it ever was.

As consumers ourselves, we instinctively want to support the places where we live and the businesses within them, but it cannot be denied that we also crave convenience and comfort – perhaps above even cost. So, the challenge for town centres in the run up to Christmas 2020 and into next year is to give consumers the confidence that they can find everything they need in physical retail – and that now clearly includes a sanitary environment.

For me, an absolute fundamental is that no business can do this on their own. Even the strongest, best-established and well-run independent businesses aren’t going to regenerate a high street alone. By working together, supporting each other and co-ordinating marketing campaigns and messages, the voice of indie retail is amplified exponentially. Whether this is via a Business Improvement District, Chamber of Trade, town or parish council, or even just neighbouring businesses working together, there isn’t anywhere that doesn’t have the means to develop a joint approach to promoting their place.

Next, creativity, innovation and adaptability are key strengths of any town centre or high street. Budget is simply not an issue for the retail behemoths, but they can’t just decide to introduce a new line overnight, create a 2-4-1 offer with the business next door, or decide to run a competition tomorrow to generate a bit of a buzz. They work quickly, yes, but not as quickly as the indie community can, meaning that it is actually not that hard to stay one step ahead of the big boys and girls sometimes!

Referring back to a point I’ve already made, though, town centres need to make it easy for customers. Be absolutely explicit that you are working together to manage the risks that we now face on a daily basis and be honest about what your limitations are. Overselling a place has always been a risk for place-makers, and consumers are now giving much more consideration to the environments they are visiting.

2020 has provided independent businesses and town centres of all types the space to take a step back and accept the limitations of what they are, as shops, businesses and places. We can create online sales channels, offer same day delivery and widen our supply chains, but there will, unfortunately, only ever be one Amazon.

That said, there are a raft of solutions that are helping businesses and town centres to act in a more Amazonian fashion. Miconex is a company which provides place-based gift cards. Loyal Free offer town-wide loyalty schemes and ShopAppy provide a collaborative online sales platform.  These are just a few of the solutions on the market, and equally, there are examples of BIDs and chambers of commerce co-ordinating home deliveries, etc. It’s actually really straightforward for small businesses to set up their own home delivery services now, without even needing to invest in e-commerce platforms.

Hopefully the innovations that small businesses and town centres have needed to come up with this year will remind business owners that they can adapt to thrive and survive and will remind us as consumers the real value of what we get from our towns at a time when we can’t use them as we have done in the past.

Our business has faced challenges of its own over the course of this year and we have been able to take some similar steps ourselves as we look towards “a new normal”, but one thing that we have always done that we won’t be changing is sharing stories of best practice, success and innovation from places across the UK. Our monthly online magazine, Place, will be back up and running in the next few weeks and this free resource will hopefully offer you all some ideas to help your place thrive into 2021 and beyond.

Business News Wales