March 04 2007

Retailers must try harder

Retail Traffic Index figures from the retail research group SPSL show that the number of shopping trips made in February fell by 1.3% year-on-year and by 9.3% on January. January wasn't the best month for retailers on the high street nor online as figures for internet retailing show a larger than usual drop between December and January.

According to SPSL the footfall figures, when compared with retailers' recently posted trading results, are "beginning to show that the luck has gone out of retailing. The message is now clear; get every single element of your offer right or consumers won't buy."

Dr Tim Denison, Director of Knowledge Management at SPSL, commented: "Retailers simply cannot afford to rely on the whims of the passer-by or that, with a little 'luck,' they'll be able to trade through the slowing demand conditions. With consistently fewer trips being made, they daren't. Instead they must look to adopt a two-pronged strategy: maximising store footfall by developing initiatives to proactively drive customers into their stores and capitalising on the footfall they get once they've achieved that, converting browsers into buyers and up-selling whenever they can."

Denison's advice to bricks and mortar retailers is just as applicable to e-retailers who have seen, as an industry, a drop in online sales of 29% during January, compared to December's level. However, at 16.5%, January's online growth (compared to January 2006), is still ahead of any predicted increase for the retail sector overall and the IMRG still predicts that internet retailing will grow by 40% this year.

Emma Herrod