Is the demise of the high street due to digital?

In a very simplistic answer, then the answer is partly. Digital has shaped buying behaviour over the past 10 years but it certainly hasn’t devalued the shopping experience. In fact I believe it adds to the consumer shopping experience, it is the job of the high street to value its customers more and make it more of an attractive experience to go in-store to shop. In an interview a few months back, chairman of M&S Archie Norman said that the business was on a ‘burning platform’ and said unless the company changes and develops ‘in decades to come there will be no M&S.’ I have no doubt that this is a true statement but it will be a mix of retails outlets, click and collect and e-commerce sales that will drive M&S forward.  Digital will be a critical part of the future of how the company moves forward. That being said the retail outlets as per in the example of John Lewis play a fundamental part of the strategy, the shopping experience of going into a John Lewis is miles apart from the current offering at M&S.

Apps and websites have created user experiences that allow customers to view products in a video format, 360 degree angles and placed in lifestyle examples. In the fashion industry models walk down catwalks to show the products online. This can get over the barrier of seeing a product without physically touching them, this engagement and trick to create more conversion has seen shoppers who traditionally would have gone in-store to purchase are now buying directly from their tablet or phone increasing conversion. Hence the explosion of internet shopping for clothing in the UK. No longer does the shopper need to go in-store to see clothes hanging on plastic dummies. If clothes were presented to shoppers in this way in the modern world it might cause some confusion as to why? Digital has also infiltrated the shops with large format digital display boards showing videos and images of products that can be controlled centrally.

Retailers that embrace the digital world will be around in the future, and if the likes of M&S don’t then as Archie Norman has been quoted as saying, they won’t be around as a business to compete in this highly competitive retail world.