Shoppers are
no longer inspired by simple shopping and no amount of advertising is
going to correct that. But modern retail thinking suggests there are other
things that bring consumers to retail centres – things like concerts, arts
centres, spas, fitness clubs, children’s activities, fine dining – and the list
goes on. Things that create a desirable link with customers, and help form a
bond, perhaps a community bond, that makes a centre able to satisfy other needs.
Importantly these services provide a level of leisure and entertainment that
can never be satisfied online.
QVM is
experiencing the same decline in “shopping activity” and that is why trader
numbers are falling. QVM has very
successfully enhanced food and entertainment in its Night Market schedule, but
the daytime activity remains a challenge, at least in the Upper Market. String
Bean Alley is an interesting exercise. It
has the potential to create something new and interesting for the Day Market, and
it fits in well with Night Market activities.
But the
bigger picture for the Upper Market is a major exercise. It requires intense
retail thinking and probably thinking that is driven by new learning. There is
a huge amount of new learning and experimentation going on right now. Retailers
around the globe are spending millions on new ways of exciting consumers and
making shopping (sorry, “retail experiences”) more convenient and desirable.
To some
extent that future is out of the hands of individual traders although the
search for new entrepreneurial ideas, and general excellence in retailing,
should remain the aim for every trader. But amongst traders there are real frustrations
with things like stall gaps, and when times are tough, time is an enemy. It might be helpful if we could start the
conversation on how we curate a better market right now. There are plenty who would
put their shoulder to that cause.
By Greg Smith