A friendly face, a welcoming smile, reminders of home and why you love where you live – we all cherish our local shop or café. Mine happens to be the Ox House and just down the road, Amanda Hanley by Design. Do I set out to spend thousands of pounds each week? Of course not, but each time I step through the door, I can be sure that I am known, understood and made welcome – that the emotional experience makes me feel better even before I have opened my wallet. And the certainty is, that when I have my coffee or a browse, if I find something interesting – the manager or assistant will be on hand to offer a cheery insight to why the particular product is unique and relevant to me. So I spend some money. Try doing that on-line…

It isn’t the same experience but critically, if you have no time and you know exactly what you want, on-line is faster and most of the time cheaper. So as Brexit looms let's make the most of our 'Bricks & Mortar' retail space by adding rich emotional engagement and make sure we maximise our opportunity on-line by being visible, slick and responsive.

The Retail Sector in Summer 2019

Frankly, retail is a challenge at the moment: buyers are worried about Brexit, clutching their purses tightly and ducking the next purchase. What is the general outlook?

Let’s consider the facts:

1. In the three months to August 2019, there was little growth in the quantity bought - 0.6%.
2. The year-on-year growth rate increased by 2.7% but this was a slowdown compared to the stronger growth experienced earlier in the year which peaked at 6.7% in March 2019 as buyers stocked up for a no-deal Brexit.
3. Online sales as a proportion of all retailing are broadly flat at 19.7% in August 2019, compared to 19.9% reported in July 2019.

And perhaps that last figure is the key to waning enthusiasm for robot driven, on-line buying from Amazon, Ebay and others? If we can restore the joy to buying in a local shop, our customers will come.

Helen Dickinson, OBE and Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium wants to see local retail supported better too:

"Retail sales flatlined in August with the 12-month average dropping to a new low. Greater economic and political uncertainty has driven down consumer demand. While the summer weather gave a small boost to food sales, this was cancelled out by a drop in non-food sales. Summer discounting and poor footfall have hit in-store sales particularly hard. If the Government wants to avoid seeing further store closures and job losses on the UK high street, they must take action."

So what might we conclude for Cotswold retailing?

1. On-line will continue to out-strip the high street – make the most of it – be smart enough to create traffic from your web site and the instore experience truly wonderful!
2. Consumers will expect more knowledge, better guidance and skilled staff in-store as they seek a shopping experience that adds value to on-line rather than replacing it price-for-price.
3. Sustaining the High Street is about creating a great place to be as well as providing range, quality and allure in-store. Psychographics – who buys, what they buy, how they feel when they purchase and environmental factors that stimulate buying all feature in new store launches: music, video, test areas, try before you buy, be it fashion, wine, technology, food or footwear.