SnapShop Blog
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Every Little Helps |
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Posted At: 17 November 2008 14:00 PM
Related Categories: General |
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As I’m sure anyone involved in business events will testify, there comes a brief period shortly after everything’s wrapped up where you feel a little bit lost. The SnapShop team - while essentially glad that the BCSC Conference & Showcase is done and dusted and that everything went OK - are now feeling a little jaded. There is no stand building to oversee, no balloon gas to chase, no designs to sign off…you get the idea. Normal service, as they say, has been resumed.
We hope those of you that came to see us on the stand were pleasantly surprised and warmly welcomed, and maybe we’ll see you again next year, if we’re crazy enough to do it again!
During BCSC, we ran a free prize draw for one Full Annual Membership, and are pleased to announce that the business card drawn at random was that of Peter Everest, Managing Director of WD Limited.
WD Limited are shopping centre Asset Managers, Developers and Investors, and have worked on schemes such as Kingsgate, Huddersfield; Royal Quays, Newcastle; The Galleria, Hatfield and The Belle Vale, Liverpool.
We’d like to thank Peter for leaving us with his business card, and can only hope that his SnapShop Membership will come in handy! We’d also like to remind everyone that attended BCSC of the 50% discount offer we are running until 21st November – that’s a Full Annual Membership for just £375 +VAT! BCSC delegates can contact us on snapshop@fspretail.co.uk for more details.
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Westfield London: Shopping Heaven or Hell of a Centre? |
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Posted At: 07 November 2008 15:00 PM
Related Categories: Retail, Retail Property, Town & Shopping Centre Management |
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Well, I jumped on this bandwagon and visited the new Westfield development in London, along with all the other curious people with notepad in hand, rather than wallet!
What can I say? It’s big! But then that’s no surprise as we already knew we were betting the largest in-town shopping and leisure destination in Europe.
The food court area was very much the centre of scheme and was very busy when I arrived at 2pm – possibly all those people updating their notepads, rather than weary shoppers taking a break! Certainly very few of them had any bags.
Sadly, much of The Village is not yet open and Louis Vuitton, the one they have been harping on about for ages, will not open its doors until March 2009! Also, rather curiously, the House of Fraser department store is at the end of village and unless you come from Shepherds Bush station you could easily miss it.
The size of the centre is daunting and there’s probably some psychological theory which states that after a certain point, the success of the centre is in inverse proportion to its size (the consultants at FSP can probably get their heads round this better than I), but with the retailers clustered in merchandise groups e.g. jewellery all together, your shopping trip can perhaps be accomplished without having to trawl the whole 1.6m ft2 of it to find what you want!
Along with a load of retailers you probably never heard of – which, like Golden Point and Yamamay, are already featured on SnapShop – there are the old favourites, like Clintons, Beauty Base and Superdrug. Curiously, the location of these established retailers, which seem to be geared to the less well healed visitor, is an area which they have cleverly made to feel like the old part of the centre as if it was already there (weird)!
My verdict is that Westfield London is well worth a visit. Its big, there are some interesting new retailers and some favourites that have upped their game. However the lack of retailers open in the village was a disappointment and the frankly run of the mill department store offer means Selfridges won't be shutting up shop any time soon!
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SnapShop at BCSC |
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Posted At: 06 November 2008 15:38 PM
Related Categories: General |
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As some of you will be aware, SnapShop and FSP will be entering into the shady world of exhibitionism next week, as we take a stand at the BCSC conference in Liverpool.
It’s the first time either FSP or SnapShop have taken a stand at a conference in their long and sometimes meandering histories, so come along and be nice!
The lovely SnapShop Manager, Mrs Heidi Roberts, will be there as the fountain of all SnapShop knowledge, closely flanked by our Directors, who are basically only going to get drunk!*
I’m not at liberty to say what you might find at the stand, but apparently, its gonna be magic!
Draped in ‘SnapShop orange’ with a 2 metre wide silver helium balloon floating overhead, the stand will hopefully look something like this.
Not bad for a first attempt, eh!
*Not true. Honest!
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It'll be a healthy Halloween for many UK retailers |
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Posted At: 29 October 2008 11:59 AM
Related Categories: General |
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The holiday season will soon be upon us and no, I’m not talking about Christmas! This Friday is Halloween of course.
Originating from combination of Gaelic and Pagen celebrations, Halloween is now more commonly known for the meaningless joviality surrounding it than for the spiritual connections the night once held.
For the kids, it’s a night of trick-or-treating, for the elderly it’s a time to close the curtains and pretend to be out, and for the under 30’s, it is, predictably, an excuse to get drunk. And all of these things mean good news for the economy (or at the very least for our national happiness levels).
The current poll running on retail-week.com shows that 21% of respondents think Halloween is important to their business. I was confused about this, wondering which retailers would benefit from our pathetic attempt at a spooky celebration; lets face it, compared to Americans, who spent around £2 billion on the festival last year, our interest just doesn’t match up. Until now. It seems that, along with a raft of other American imports, the British have begun to more widely embrace traditions such as trick or treating and jack-o-lantern carving, and retailing during Halloween is booming as a result.
In 2001, British spend on Halloween stood at just £12m. 7 years later, numbers are forecast to reach triple figures and major retailers are standing up and taking note.
Asda and Woolworths have severely ramped up their Halloween offerings (Asda are currently selling lifesize robotic zombie statues for sale at approx £70 that are awesome), and both are running special themed advertisements. Greeting card retailer Birthdays has taken it one step further by launching special Halloween stores across approximately 18 sites in the UK, and savvy Tesco - having spotted a gap in the market - are offering glow in the dark roses for couples wanting to add a more romantic twist to the night.
Halloween is probably my favourite time of the year after Bonfire Night, never having been one for Christmas or any of the other religious festivals, so I’m quite happy to spend some cash on an outfit or two and forget the downturn doom for a while.
Some mostly non-retail related Halloween facts for you:
· About 99% of pumpkins marketed domestically are used as Jack O'Lanterns at Halloween.
· It is believed that the Irish began the tradition of Trick or Treating. In preparation for All Hallow's Eve, Irish townsfolk would visit neighbors and ask for contributions of food for a feast in the town
· The average American will spend approximately $24 on a costume, $20 on candy, $18 on decorations and $3 on greeting cards this year, totalling a $65 spend per head
· Compared with 2007, adult retailers have noticed an explosion in the number of Halloween related goods being sold this year.
· And finally…the days immediately following Halloween are among the busiest of the year for orthodontists as they add emergency appointments to their schedules and repair braces damaged when patients indulge in inappropriate treats.
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Caffè Americano, Caramel Macchiato, Espresso Ristretto. But Italy this is not. |
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Posted At: 17 October 2008 15:19 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retail |
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I am a recent coffee convert. I’m not ashamed that I never used to like coffee...sometimes I still think it tastes like licking tree bark…but now, mostly, I’ll go with it.
I think it has something to do with growing up. When I was younger, I used to envy those people sitting at the back of Caffe Nero with their laptops, supping away at their soup-bowl-sized mugs of brown. And the thought of running for the tube with a green and white paper cup in my hand….well, that was the epitome of cool. Be that as it may, it didn’t change the fact that I just didn’t like the flavour of the stuff. So what changed? Well, I discovered posh coffee, that’s what.
Gone are the days of replying ‘just a tea please’ in a bonafide coffee shop (why the hell are you here if you’re not drinking coffee!? they think). Now I can say - with confidence – “a Grande Caramel Latte please”, hand over my £6.95 (joke!), and head to the back sofas to sit with the rest of the smugs (all puns intended – snobs, mugs…coffee mugs…get it? Bad, I know).
And so it is that Britain’s coffee shop boom takes hold. In my town alone (population just over 80k), we have 6 shops specialising in coffee, not including cafes, pubs etc. 6! List them – honestly – how many different high street coffee shop brands can you reel off the top of your head? You never thought about it before, did you? Nero, Costa, Starbucks, Revive, Ritazza, Primo, Republic, AMT; if you’re well travelled enough you’ll have been to them all without even realising that Britain’s coffee shop industry was buoyant enough to support them all at once. And support them well!
Britons drink 70 million cups of coffee daily, with retail sales rising from £632m in 2002 to £680m in 2005. The biggest growth has come from coffee shops which specialise in stronger espresso-based drinks, such as lattes and Americanos, and its thought that this sector can be worth around £1 billion a year. A small, daily purchase of a common, insignificant drink means nothing in the scheme of things, right? Wrong. It’s not just a cup of coffee now, is it?
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FSP Retailer Classifications |
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Posted At: 13 October 2008 14:22 PM
Related Categories: Retailers |
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I thought the best way to promote a new SnapShop service would be to tell you about it here. I have to admit that SnapShop members are benefitting from the development of FSP classifications, but anything that makes our website better and more informative is all to the good as far as I’m concerned.
Some of you know that SnapShop has been built on the consultancy knowledge contained within FSP. Our consultants have got their heads together to reclassify retailers on their price stance and predominant customer group (previously called Target Customer). Now, with more categories, there is a finer gradation which enables you to get a much better feel for how the retailer is portraying itself.
If you’re not a member, you can have a look at the NEXT record, to see the classifications for yourself. Members can obviously find this information on all retailer records.
If you want to know more about retailer classifications, please contact FSP
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From Marrakech to…Manchester? |
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Posted At: 08 October 2008 11:50 AM
Related Categories: General |
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Though a tradition still prevalent in China, Turkey and Egypt, haggling has been absent from the high streets of western Europe and the USA for many years now.
‘Bartering for bargain’ at the fruit and veg market was common practice in my parents’ day, but we seem to have been shoehorned into this cage of obedience as the rise of the credit card (see, you thought I was going to say crunch, tut tut) and luxury aspirational advertising take hold.
Not anymore!
A recent report by Experian reveals that 57% of British adults now say they are more likely than they were 12 months ago to try and negotiate a discount on an advertised price.
Not surprisingly, the [yawn] ‘economic downturn’ is cited as a reason for this, as well as the rising cost of ‘every day goods’. Interestingly, the majority of participants said they were most comfortable haggling with technology retailers (though I question how many ‘everyday goods’ fall into this category!), and men are much better at dickering1 than women. (My only experience of haggling occurred in Morocco, where a thrifty market trader suggested my mother sell me to him in exchange for some prize camels, so I’m happy to leave the haggling to the men, thanks)
Truth be told, even though the report suggests that we can save money by bargaining in this country as well as the next, I just can’t see myself in Currys.digital asking for a couple of hundred quid off that nice new LCD TV that I so desperately need. Moreover, if it’s true that many retailers are willing to give a discount to the confident few who ask (across all segments, from electronics to grocery), is it true that they are overpricing their goods in the first place? It’s very confusing, and I for one am not keen on factoring this market tradition into an already lengthy checkout process in my favourite high street stores. If the price on the tag is the true value of the item, then this is the figure I either will or will not pay. I’d like price tags to reflect reality, not ‘ball park figures’, please, so that I can just finish my shopping and get on with my day!
1A brilliant word I discovered today meaning ‘bargaining or bartering’! Quite apt for the description of any male activity, I feel.
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Online Retailing; A Marvellous Evolution |
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Posted At: 02 October 2008 13:36 PM
Related Categories: E-tailing, Future of Retailing |
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I am a great fan of shopping online. As you may expect, I’ve been a dedicated surfer for a while now - a good decade or so, really (not long to some, but I’m only 23!) - so the fears and reservations harboured by many have been quelled within me by a long and successful relationship with the e-street, during which I’ve never experienced so much as a denied refund let alone identity fraud.
Yes, ‘plastic card’ fraud is up 14% since last year, but to put this into context, fraud sourced from the Internet went up 204% between 2001 and 2007, while transactions increased by 415%!
Take a look at that figure. 415%. Staggering, isn’t it. In 2001, the internet was…well, not much more than a massive pornography library, and the hangout of some uber geeks, if we’re honest about it. The word ‘iPod’ returned an “Image Proof of Deposit Document Processing System” website top of the list, and shopping options included Amazon (launched in 1995) and a supremely ugly CDNow website*. Now…well, now you can book a holiday to Australia, get a taxi to the airport and back, and arrange for your food shopping to be dropped at your door just hours after your return, without even leaving the house.
I’m gad that things have moved on and I’m clearly not the only one.
While high street sales figures are falling, online figures continue to rise; just today, Marks and Spencer posted an overall 1.6 per cent fall in UK sales for the second quarter of 2008, with online sales 34% up! And do I need to mention the word ‘ASOS’…? The golden child of cyber space, ASOS recently announced a 104% year on year increase in sales for the 6 months to the end of September 2008!
So, we’re all in love. Even men love Internet shopping (42% of men shop online every week compared to 35% of women) so while I’m not going to say the future looks bright, I will say that I expect to see online spending increase more and more as shoppers hunt for both a bargain and a way of saving more of their ever-dwindling time. Lets hope retailers are ready, eh…
*To see for yourself, visit Google as it was in 2001 here
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Dedicated Follower Of Fashion |
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Posted At: 22 September 2008 16:52 PM
Related Categories: Future of Retailing, Retailers |
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Reuters USA posted an interesting article last week about the slow in sales at traditional teenwear brands American Eagle Outfitters and Abercrombie & Fitch. These two brands in particular have been dominant in the teen apparel market of the States for a number of years, with their results usually giving a good indication of how the market is performing.
But things seem to be a-changing! As always, I think music can say it best…in 1999, LFO liked girls who wore Abercrombie & Fitch…while in 2008, Scouting For Girls like a girl who looks like them girls in Vogue. I think this conveniently highlights my point.
The increased focus on fashion for teenagers, driven through TV (The Hills), film (Bratz: The Movie) and magazines (Teen Vogue) is causing a shift in the tastes of young shoppers from the casual jeans and t-shirt styles of Abercrombie to the leopard print and leather loving fashion seen at, say, H&M.
As always, what happens in America is echoed over here in Blighty (what is it they say, America sneezes and Britain gets a cold?). The once popular Bay Trading has posted continuously poor results over the last few years; former value favourite C&A has disappeared from the UK (although they maintain a strong presence overseas) and New Look have severely ramped up their catwalk rip-offs over the last ten years. The ultra-hip Topshop and aforementioned H&M, however, got them some famous designers and celebrity endorsements to push their fashion credentials and have reaped the benefits with record results becoming a norm.
Personally, it worries me. I used to be quite happy roaming the streets (not literally) in my raggedy jeans, and I now get the distinct impression that the girls I see in town on a Saturday wouldn’t be seen dead in stonewash denim (not until next season, anyway – hot tip for you there ladies!), let alone an elasticated waist (my first pair of jeans – green denim, no less – were elasticated)!
It does make me sad, because being a young teenager should be all worrying about GCSC grades and how much you hate your parents, not chastising yourself for forgetting skinny is out and bootcut is in...
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To Buy Or Not To Buy... |
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Posted At: 18 September 2008 16:50 PM
Related Categories: General, Retail Statistics |
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Currently, rumours abound about how we, as a nation, will spend the extra cash in our wages this month! Will it go on rising energy bills, rising petrol costs…maybe even rising food bills…or will we be kind and help out the high street?
Back in April, then not-Prime-Minister-but-Chancellor Gordon Brown seemingly made a bit of a cock up. His heart was in the right place, bless him, but like a drunk on a night out he didn’t really think of the consequences before sticking his tongue down the collective throat of British taxpayers.
In a bid to keep us peasants happy, Brown reduced the basic tax rate from 22% to 20% - seemingly great, however he offset this cost by abolishing the 10% rate. For people earning less than £18,500, this meant an additional tax cost of over £200 a year, rending those he set out to help – low earners – even worse off. After many moans and jeers from the backbench (or that’s how I imagine it, anyway), Brown rethought his genius plan and brought back the 10% band while simultaneously retaining the 2% reduction. Sooooo, basically, to compensate all the money they took off us over the months between then and now, we (I say we, I mean most of us) will be getting a ‘rebate’ of £120 in the form of a £60 lump sum this September and a further £10 every month until the end of this tax year. Hurrah!
I’ll be spending mine on one of 2 things; either a nice new haircut, or s | | |