High streets have long played a considerable role in local communities. Business owners and shopkeepers maintained familiar relationships with the area’s residents, steering a retail operation to best support the region that hosted its premises. Over time, however, brands spread nationwide and began offering products online, both of which contributed to the increasing homogenisation of the shopping experience. This is because nationwide retailers wanted to assure customers that they would receive the same retail experience on one high street as they would in another.
Now, there is a growing counterculture to this shopping experience. Customers are increasingly seeking a personal and tangibleexperience with their purchases. To buy a product online is efficient but it is absent of a community experience, one that involves a retailer, a building, and a physical product. And, as customers seek to preserve the shopping experience, retailers are responding accordingly by supporting their local area.
Beyond Products
It is important for retailers to remember that their place on the local high street may often have the potential to go beyond merely offering products. Brick-and-mortar retailers may, for example, want to use their venues to host groups or events, those that also complement their brand and products. This could be a wine merchant hosting a tasting evening or a health and beauty retailer arranging spa treatments. Such endeavours affirm a retailer as not only important for their products but also their offered experiences.
Support Local Creators
Every area around the country will have a selection of talented creators, whether artists or artisans. These creators may offer products that can suit a brand and even improve it, with the addition of products only available in the local area. Filling greeting card units with those gift cards designed by local designers is a simple way of demonstrating support for local creativity while also offering a product that is less often available elsewhere.
Regional Giving
Local charities are often born out of a community experience and it can be immensely valuable to residents to see businesses demonstrate their support for such initiatives. Retailers need not even make their contribution monetary and, in fact, many can offer their support with services or staff participation too.
Collaborate & Share
Whether hosting a pop-up with another local business or sharing a nearby retailer’s social media post, being interactive and present within the local retail community benefits the local economy greatly. Retailers who make such efforts help to create a landscape of prosperity and connection, not only receiving support in return but cultivating a sense of loyalty and support from local customers.
Quality Design
Having a physical presence on the high street means playing a role in the area’s aesthetics. Retailers would do well to take pride in their shop space, encouraging others to do the same. This can manifest in the form of a bespoke shop facade, one that raises visual appeal, or with high-quality interior design and shop shelving, both of which set a respectable standard and will ensure local shoppers feel proud to have such businesses in the area.ith high-quality interior design and shop shelving, both of which set a respectable standard and will ensure local shoppers feel proud to have such businesses in the area.
