Photo by Eric & Amy Hodges.
So I was in the UK last week and had a couple of hours to go shopping along Oxford Street.
Despite being one of the busiest – and most famous – shopping streets in the World, I was shocked at how bad the actual shopping experience was.
Now I know high-street retailers are being bashed around by the tough economic conditions – not to mention the rise of internet shopping – however the way they are presenting themselves to the public leads me to believe they are doing more than their fair-share in ensuring their demise, rather than their growth.
Two things that really shocked me was their layout and their service policies.
Store after store looked like it had been downsized while trying to keep stock levels the same.
What this resulted in was a cluttered store that did all it could to dis-encourage any customer browsing. What’s worse is that if you were in a clothing store and found something you wanted to try, you were faced with dirty, cluttered ‘changing rooms’ that did all they could to make you turn back, rather than try on.
Seriously, I walked into one where there were 17 coat hangers strewn across the floor.
SEVENTEEN.
And when I went into the cubicle next door, I found the mirror broken and the door wouldn’t lock.
This was not the sort of store you’d expect me to shop at [ie: Everything For A Pound], it was a well known, semi-up market, mainstream fashion brand.
Which led to the second major issue.
Staff.
In short, there was hardly any around.
You could sense that companies had downsized their people as well as their stores to save on cash – but what this led to was a bunch of people who were unhelpful and unavailable to shoppers, either because they were too stressed out with the countless other jobs they had to do to or just had stopped caring.
But there was one area where companies had seemingly invested a lot.
Security guards.
Seriously, they were everywhere.
Millions of them, all talking into their little walkie-talkies and guarding the doors against shoppers who seemed to be spending more time walking out than buying. Unless they were a tourist, because they seemed to not care as long as they could go home with a TopShop or Harrods bag.
Now you might imagine that this situation would be even worse in places like Asia – but you’d be wrong.
Sure labour is cheap, but that hasn’t stopped companies instilling strict standards of shopping environment experience.
Stores are clean, open and well stocked.
Changing rooms are clean, well lit, with staff on hand to help.
And the overall sales assistant approach is one of being genuinely helpful, rather than bitter or busy.
Of course there are exceptions – just like there are in the UK – except in Asia, the exception is a bad experience whereas on Oxford Street, it’s a good one.
Maybe you will disagree with me, but I couldn’t help feeling the high street retailers on one of London’s, not to mention the World’s, busiest streets are focused more on stopping money walk out the door – either in terms of staff, space and security – than approaching things from the perspective of encouraging more people to come in and spend more money … and while I appreciate companies need to be prudent managing their money, downsizing the shopper experience is not going to help in the long-term when ultimately, like live concerts, that can be the thing that draws millions of people out and creates an experience that’s as addictive as it is – if done well – profitable.