Can we and should we save our High Streets?
Steve Endacott
Chairman Neural River, Neural Voice and Electric Car Organization | Travel Industry Thought Leader | Keynote Speaker | Sustainable Tourism Advocate
Tui CEO Fritz Joussen commented in Tui’s recent results, that the tour operator would be putting more emphasis on digitalising sales and moving them online, at the expense of its high street network, because he felt that the Covid-19 outbreak has forced shopping habits further online.
In the short term, it’s difficult to argue against this theory, as most high street shops will remain shut until 1st June 2020 at the earliest. A full lockdown of 3 months, which has forced customers to move online.
This trend is set to continue as Social distancing and restrictions, preventing customers from trying on clothes, will further damage this distribution channel. Customers may be willing to queue outside supermarkets for food, but will they be willing to enter 10-15 separate queues on a “browsing” Saturday shopping trip.
We are likely to see a growth in “Cross Channel” shopping, where customers review samples in the flesh, but ease the shopping process, by capturing a QR code and ordering their size for home delivery via their phones or even gain “Fast Pass” appointments to return later to beat queues.
However, I do feel these “natural” changes are being accelerated by imbalanced taxation structures, where “business rates” are strangling the high street. Although high street rents are reducing to reflect the balance between supply and demand, business rates continue to increase as local council’s become desperate for revenues to balance their books.
On the other hand, we hear regular reports about how internet retail giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon via clever legal structures, are paying minimal taxation in the UK as a whole and zero to local councils.
If we want to save our high streets, I propose an increase of online VAT payments to 25%, with the extra 5% being allocated to the postcodes that goods are delivered too. It would take no more than 2-3 days to create the computer programs required to “tag” sales with the postcode they are delivered to, along with the 5% Vat attributable, so that it could be paid to central government and then passed on to fund local councils.
This new VAT income, which is similar to “state sales taxes” in the USA, would allow local councils to reduce business rates and rebalance cost structures in favour of the high street.
However, do customers want to save the high street?
I believe that the high street is a key plank in the UK’s Social community, providing an opportunity for all ages to meet and spend time with friends, shopping and enjoying a coffee or in my case a quick beer.
Do we really want grate swaths of derelict town centres to spring up, because of our consumerist desire for cheaper online goods?
The answer may well be yes, but lets at least allow shops to fight on a level playing field, by counterbalancing business rates with a higher online VAT bill.
It’s a simple and deliverable idea.
Providing strategic marketing support to help you bridge the gap and grow | Putting your customer at the heart of your strategy and turning marketing into sales | Fractional Director | Author
4 年I think shopping will continue to move online. There will a great deal of complaining at the death of the high street but the same people will be buying their products from home. The strategies being put in place by public bodies to resurrect towns will not compete commercially with the pull of online. Many are already zones of discard. There will reach a tipping point (which we are rapidly reaching) where there isn’t sufficient reason to go to the high street because the main retailers have pulled out/gone bust. With regard travel, I think you need to distinguish between operators going online to cut out the agents and the online/home based agents. There is still a need for the agent to be providing a public facing service whether that is through social media,zoom or other channels. Operators need to be backing the value that the agent provides rather than trying to cut them out and pocketing that margin
Entrepreneur
4 年Yes. We should care. And we should get out of the house and walk down the High Street.
Trainer | Coach | Advisor
4 年Buying habits drive progression and ‘in this case’ a move away from these community hubs. I believe that, in time, these ‘hubs’ will spring up again surrounding amenities and provisions not so much retail based. As for our cities and towns... I think ‘needs’ will drive what they look like. Housing, parking, business centres, gym and social sites. Very different.
Managing Director at JFD VERITAS LTD.
4 年I think the sales process of travel product heavily leans towards the digital experience. I would like to think that post pandemic the government though will provide urgent incentive to revitalise the high street. Butchers, bakers, greengrocers, furniture, soft furnishing, fashion and art. Smaller independent retailers with locally sourced and produced goods. Embrace the unique and local designers turning away from mass produced, packaged processed food, flat-pack convenience creating Legoland existence. Just having a ‘buy British mantra’ without the production, supply and high street presence is futile. One can’t ‘feel’ a holiday product but they can feel fabric and furnishings, smell and taste food product. Revitalising the high street, local farming and manufacturing, urban designers should aim to deliver the Great British Boutique presence in every village, town and city. Getting that right, the economy becomes revitalised and the confidence returns to ....booking holidays digitally.
Car Rental Consultant, Specialising in Mobility Solutions. We are proud to serve our customer in a global world
4 年As the younger generation set the standards and digital becomes the norm the High Street becomes less important. As an example my lease on my car is due to expire. I purchased a new car via Zoom and it worked perfect. Just waiting to see if its delivered in September