62,000 fewer shops: Welcome to the High Street of 2018

It's all about value. Time to change

Lots of comments here about tax. The problem for the high street it not one of tax. We are all subject to the same rules. Multinationals tax avoidance is a separate problem.

The real problem is high street retail has suddenly been subject to a step change in competition and has failed to innovate. Mass manufacturing means that if I see an item from retailer A I can be sure that I will be able to get the exact same item in retailer B. High street retailers have been acting as simple distribution for too long - this adds no value to the product.

The shopper will always search out the best value. The value of an object is given by the following equation:

Value = Goods Received / Money Paid.

There are two ways to increase value. Increase the good received, or reduce the price paid. On-line retailers are able to do the latter as their overheads are less compared to high street. On-line retailers however are at a disadvantage compared to high street as you cannot see the product before purchase, and you have to wait a day to more for delivery. This means that there is scope for high street retailers to add value by increasing the goods received.

Any by that I mean that they must start thinking about what the customer wants. For too long all high street retailers have done is bought in a product whole sale and sold it on at a profit, providing very little service along side it. They relied on the high street being the only place to go in order to get your goods. This left the gate open for on-line retailers to under cut them. If shops are to survive they must provide services alongside their products.

I want first class service - not some spotty teenage who knows less about the product than I do. Get staff that know how to advise customers and sell product. Provide additional services that the on-line retailers can't such as installation, or try before you buy, in shop support and first class after care. There are plenty of possibilities...

If the high street continues to decline I foresee a rise in branded shops. These shops purposes is not to sell goods on the high street, but to promote the goods in the flesh. They will be funded by the advertising budget of the goods suppliers - ie Sumsung, Apple, Sony etc. When making a large purchase you are more likely to want buy the one you can see in the flesh than take a punt on something on-line based on hear-say reviews.

Doesn't stop 'em building more shops though, does it?

When Napoleon said we were a "Nation of Shopkeepers" he was right, and it wasn't a compliment.

As a mere country-dweller ...

I can't say I'm all that perturbed by the decline of the high street. Each time I've taken another chunk of my business away from the high street of towns within a 50-mile radius, I've done it because of poor service, impossibility of parking or totally-exorbitant prices. And of course most businesses looked down on country-dwellers as third-class individuals who were polluting the premises by their very presence. For some of us, the internet has opened the way to shopping on a more-or-less equal playing field. Businesses providing services rather than tangible items are still there, but not operating from bricks-and-mortar premises.