In the dirge of news about retail failure, where once impregnable institutions like House of Fraser and Marks and Spencer are now husks of their former selves, the high street would seem to be in mortal danger. Right? Wrong, says Ross Bailey, a 26-year-old retail entrepreneur: “The problem is that most high-street stores are crap.”
零售企業紛紛倒下。曾經堅不可摧的House of Fraser和馬莎百貨(Marks and Spencer)如今都只剩下一具軀殼。挽歌唱響,高街零售業似乎走到了生死關頭。難道不對嗎?當然不對!在26歲的零售企業家羅斯.貝利(Ross Bailey)看來,“問題出在大多數高街百貨商店。
Lest we forget, 90 per cent of sales are still made in bricks-and-mortar buildings. But shorter leases, changing consumer loyalties and online stores have changed the way we shop. And traditional stores are increasingly being replaced by more short-term “pop-up” solutions.
Both are feeling bullish about the future of the high street. But they insist it must adapt. “Your store doesn’t need to be in one place any more,” says Bailey. “Before, if you didn’t have your store, your business was over because where would the person find you? Now you’ve always got a presence that exists.”
And he’s persuasive on the power of the pop-up as a marketing tool. “Digital direct-to-consumer brands are now paying so much for digital advertising.” With social-media reach and the right user-friendly experience, “one little shop can create something that builds a connection with millions of people that don’t even happen to walk past it. Experience is a currency that spreads.”
Bailey’s hope is that the pop-up will help make the high street “a place of discovery” once more. “Anyone can have a shop,” he says.
貝利希望,快閃模式能幫助高街零售商店再一次成為“充滿發現之地”。“人人都能開店。”
Some of his favourite anecdotes concern the more unusual enterprises he’s helped bring to life — like the parents who, in lieu of an iPad, bought their son a ?600 birthday pop-up from which to launch his T-shirt brand for two weeks.