A different perspective: Going local - UK style

The face of retail across the board in the United Kingdom, is changing rapidly (as I am sure it is in the U.S. and elsewhere.)

Tesco, the second largest retailer in the world (after Walmart) when measured by either profits or revenue, has recently announced its third consecutive fall in profits with a warning that the trend is likely to continue. The other leading food retailers are also in similar positions with declining sales. The slack is being taken up by the continental discounters such as Aldi and Lidl and by the more upmarket offer from Waitrose. This trend is signalling that the middle market offering “all things to all people” is no longer the route to success. Stores must have a definite focus if they are to maintain and increase market share.
 

What are they doing about it?

Tesco’s answer to this though, is not to play a “me too” game and directly copy the approach of their currently successful competitors, but to appeal to their local markets. A new concept store, opened in Watford, England, recently, features a free 600ft² community room for local organisations to use, complete with tea and coffee making facilities plus the incorporation of hairdressers, nail salons, yoga, pilates and zumba classes. Also, the bakery project is focused on working with local suppliers and charities, training local apprentices and restoring old-school classic recipes. The inclusion of an upmarket restaurant, coffee shop and an innovative approach to merchandising provide the consumer with an enjoyable shopping experience.
 

What about garden centers?

This all leads naturally to the role of gardening and garden centres within the local community as there must surely be a wealth of opportunities to similarly appeal to potential customers. Woodcote Green Garden Centre in South London started a small horticultural and cookery show for local people in the fall a few years ago that has now grown into thousands of entries and a massive increase in footfall. They also offer workshops for schoolchildren and free school trips to see Santa. They even have one end cap in their plant area selling plants grown at a local school with all the proceeds going back to the school.

Barton Grange Garden Centre has incorporated a farm shop with local produce from cows roaming the fields adjacent to the centre to cheeses produced only a mile away and fresh baked cakes from the surrounding villages.
 

Marketing local the right way

Not only must the produce have a local aura to it but also the marketing must be flavoured in a similar vein.

In his excellent book “The Retail Revival,” Doug Stevens outlines the story of a Brazilian car dealer introducing a new car. Rather than blindly marketing to a largely uninterested market through traditional channels, they partnered with a local towing company to offer free rides and test drives in a brand new car to stranded motorists. Although the potential audience size was much smaller than their traditional methods of marketing, the level of context was incomparably higher as people were following their broken down scrap-heap in a brand new car. The level of engagement and resulting sales proved to be much greater.

In the same way, there are times when local community and school gardens, and allotment gardeners will be in a similar position and require some support. Adverse weather conditions and local events can also present opportunities for garden retailers to get involved with and gain the local community’s support.

Social media can also play a massive role in engaging the local community by talking about local events and issues rather than being used as a cheap substitute for placing classified advertisements in the local paper.

In summary, people are wanting to engage in retail which is not simply about more, more and more. Yours must be an authentic offer that is based on being thoughtful, genuine and, above all, value-based.

Kevin has worked as an independent garden center consultant to retailers, suppliers, DIY stores and trade organizations all over the world since 1995. Before that time he was a garden centre manager with 3 leading UK garden retailers. kevin@thegardenworks.co.uk