Stuart Wood
Fitch
Simple fact – you can’t design your way out of a recession. As belts tighten across the country, brands and retailers need to give more reasons for consumers to part with their hard-earned cash. The ‘build it and they will come’ approach of the Nineties is dead and it’s time for brand owners and retailers (and design consultancies) to rethink the notion of a ‘shop’.

I believe we are reaching a tipping point in the UK high street, where everything we can possibly want can be purchased online, often cheaper and without the inconvenience of getting out of your pyjamas. We now live in a ‘seamless’ world where consumers flip between online and offline without the slightest hesitation. The ailing retailers are those who are finding it hard to come to terms with this new world, while those thriving not only understand it, they are embracing it.

So why bother to go shopping? Again, it’s simple: experience. Whether it’s seeking a visceral, tangible experience that can’t be substituted with a screen, or simply being surprised and delighted by a brand, never before has ‘experience’ had such a large impact on consumer behaviour.

Retailers need to be thinking differently about how they utilise their retail estate. Why is Waitrose opening cookery schools in flagship stores? Why is Selfridges curating art installations? Because consumers are seeking new and evolving personal experiences, they give more reasons to return, more reasons to stay longer and ultimately more reasons to spend.

Napoleon once described the British as a nation of shopkeepers. Well, there will be a different kind of revolution happening on the British high street over the next few years. While we may not be able to design ourselves out of a recession, we can rethink our solutions.

David Dalziel
Dalziel & Pow
Thankfully, retailers are aware that in recessionary times, design can be part of your solution rather than the problem. When planned as part of your trading strategy, design can reap great benefits if it is appropriate, affordable and engaging.

There seems to be a clear divide at the moment between retailers who are investing in their future and those who are choosing not to, and the consequences of that are being played out on the high street. Progressive brands pushing on with business as usual in recessionary times can steal a march on their competition. Now is the time to capitalise on cheaper property, competitive build costs and a customer that is crying out for something new, fresh and uplifting.

Stores will close, struggling Arcadia alone will drop 280 from its portfolio, but there lies the opportunity – to build fewer and better shops. We need to see shops that really showcase a brand and its offer, shops that offer more than a mundane experience, but encourage their customers to buy into their ethos across every channel.

Closing stores and opening better ones has already started, with Oasis closing its Regent Street store in

October and relaunching its new Argyll Street flagship at the same time. That one new shop has outperformed the combined trading of the two it replaced. The store looks great, but equally important, it operates very well and positively encourages web sales. This has to be the future for successful brands – a completely integrated approach.

Unique and exciting collaborations or collections of offers can create interest and ultimately sales. Primark is now taking space in Selfridges and has been taking record figures, Next has launched a very successful Fashion, Home and Garden store that has surprised many people. Novelty, creativity, ingenuity… Very valuable commodities in a recession.

Design in the UK right now is strong, because of our competitive market. But as designers we need to look abroad too to survive. We are doing 40 per cent of our business internationally, with ‘live’ clients in Chile, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Sweden, China, India and the USA. Without that income, we would be struggling.

Marta Nowicka
Marta Nowicka & Co
As most businesses undergo change during a recession, the retail market will have to mutate radically to survive this unsteady market in response to economic constraints and the increase of internet shopping.

The retail profile will become increasingly polarised, with low-end, low-cost, bargain basement units with minimal spend and a ‘stack ’em high to sell ’em low’ mentality, through to the high-end, luxury goods where we undertake a lifestyle experience in which all our senses are pampered through an indulgent, meticulous design process. The middle ground retail traders will stay static and stagnant with no spend or investment, hoping to hang on to marginal profits.

New opportunities will arise for pop-up retail experiences in a changing high street, which is the perfect opportunity for retailers with a strong internet presence to ‘exhibit’ their goods for a limited time and move on to the next venue in the next high street. Designers will be responding with flexible designs, non-site specific, so that the retailer can plug into a site with ease and speed, which broadens the internet retail literacy through a pop-up high street experience.

The high street retail experience will be a place to socialise, pamper, eat, meet and greet. It will be more about personal interaction, with personal shopping, retail theatre and performance delivered in the guise of runway shows, customer workshops and end-user debate/discussion. This public interface with designers will create a client-responsive society where economic hardships will aim to minimise the retail risk, so will, in effect, be led by the end-user.

The tail will wag the dog!

Steve Collis
JHP Design
It has a big effect. In many ways it has a parallel with the housing market. In recessionary times, no one moves; instead they turn to DIY and decorating their property. The same can be said of retailers and how they treat their store estate during such times.

However, some retailers who are cash rich can go for the big investment, the big leap forward to put distance between themselves and their rivals, through innovation, retail design, technology or service initiatives.

There will be others who realise that by clever planning, lighting, visual merchandising and display – all of which fit within the parameters of retail design, and can make a real difference to their commercial performance.

With planning, for example, it’s important to be very savvy with customer journeys during austere times. We know customers will be looking for the value aisles, so we ensure the planning of the store is immediately intuitive upon entry. In a recession, the retailer needs to offer value for money, so it’s imperative to get volume product into the store, sell at low margins and place value products at the right parts of the store journey. It’s the role of the retail designer to maximise opportunities to shift product within store environments – and this is true regardless of any economic situation we find ourselves in.

Understanding customer psychology also features strongly in our work as retail designers. In times when customers are reining in their spending, they like to select products that give them a lift, a touch of happiness, such as lipstick and costume jewellery.

We work with retailers to ensure these ‘happiness’ products are effectively displayed, and that they add a little chink of joy into customers’ lives.