Death of the High Street?
If we are being honest, the death knell for high street shopping has been sounding for some time now. There are various reasons why this has become the case, and we listed the top five.
1. People Are Busier
Consumers want convenience more than ever before, and you simply do not get that on the high street. High street stores have always been based on the principle of creating a relaxed browsing environment to encourage customers to buy. Customers are more focused with regards purchases than ever before, so tend to buy online or simply look to get in and out of a shop as quickly as possible.
2. Rise of the Retail Park
Many businesses are turning their backs on the high street in favour of setting up shop in retail parks. Retail park units often offer better value for businesses in terms of rates against return, too. One reason that businesses favour retail parks is that they can market products and target customers and employees a lot easier. Retail parks are filled with “destination” stores where customers go with the purpose of buying. This means businesses can look at how successful they are on selling to the customers who come into stores, knowing that almost all of them are looking to buy, whereas on the high street you need to heavily factor in browsers.
3. Supermarkets
Even as recently as fifteen years ago, the supermarket was where you would go just to get your weekly food shopping. Now, you can decorate your home, book a holiday, and even buy a car in most modern supermarkets. With the rise of these one stop shops, why would anyone need to visit a high street?
4. E-Commerce
Even for the biggest technophobes, using the internet to shop can prove much more convenient than wandering around a store looking for a member of staff, who then points to where they think an item might be rather than you to it. Finding an item online is often no more than a search and a click, making for an easy and straightforward, stress free shopping experience.
5. People Know Points 1 – 4
As much as the Government and local authorities look to focus on high street regeneration, they are as aware of the other four points as anyone. Ultimately, there will come a time when they will realise it is no longer cost effective to continue putting money into high streets, especially as there is no real demand for them to be the central fulcrum of shopping habits that they once were.
Posterita offers a free and paid point-of-sale operational system for a number of companies in the different industry sectors from ecommerce, high street shops, and restaurants.
