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| | | | 09/03/2015 | Retail Week, Luke Tugby - Industry unveils plan to transform digital health of high streets by 2020 | | | | | Five-year digital strategy unveiled to "reinvigorate" UK high streets | | | | | Retail Week reports that a five-year strategy has been unveiled to "reinvigorate" UK high streets with a host of digital schemes.
The Digital High Street Advisory Board has proposed to implement four significant digital initiatives in a bid to transform high streets across the UK by 2020.
The blueprint includes meeting targets for town centre connectivity by improving broadband, mobile and wi-fi access and laying on programmes to improve basic digital skills of individuals, small businesses and charities.
A High Street Digital Lab will be set up to provide 1,200 UK towns with ready-to-use digital capabilities and town-specific skills training.
The board will also establish the High Street Digital Health Index, which it said will provide "an interactive benchmark" for towns and local authorities to "drive assessment and change" in infrastructure, digital skills, high street attraction and digital engagement.
The four objectives form part of the Digital High Street 2020 report, which sets out how town centres, and in particular small independent retailers, can benefit from integrating digital technologies into their high streets and "compete more favourably" with national and international etailers.
The report suggests that "new solutions in retailing, logistics and traffic management" are needed for towns and cities to regenerate their high streets, "take advantage of technological changes" and offer "genuinely new and attractive shopping experiences".
The report says that six in 10 adults now use mobile phones to access the internet on the move, with more than £150bn of retail sales now influenced by digital.
But the board are concerned that retailers with services that fail to meet customers’ digital expectations risk losing a combined £12bn in sales every year.
Only half of small businesses and charities have a website and only a third of SMEs have an ecommerce offer.
Estimates published in the report reveal that digital technology could unlock £18.8bn of revenue for SMEs, while reducing their costs by up to a fifth. |
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