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London - Is the West End still the best end?
The ash cloud has impacted on us all, but this month our resident roving retail specialist, Karl McKeever of Visual Thinking, took advantage being grounded and took a trip to London's West End to see how the UK's own shopping capital was shaping up after the recession.
West London's used to weathering storms. It survived the fire of London, the Blitz and the spectre of terrorism in the 80's and it's seen off its fair share of recessions. Not only has the West End recently endured one of the worst recessions in living memory, where its most powerful ally, 'credit', has been restricted to say the least, it has also had to contend with the shopping titan - Westfield in Shepherds Bush. And if the aftermaths of similar shopping centre launches around the country's major cities are anything to go by, the Capital's independent retailers should have seen some major dents in their profits - if the profits are there at all.
The West End has had allies though - the weak pound and tourism, specifically retail tourism. The weak pound has made the Capital appear bargainous again and this has been helped especially by the presence of US brands such as Armani Exchange and Banana Republic, meaning that consumers have had less reason to go to New York to shop their favourite brands.
Add to this great initiatives like the Very Important Pedestrian's Day and this shopping Capital hotspot should be buzzing?
Oxford Street
I visited the Eastern End of Oxford Street (from Tottenham Court Road to Oxford Circus). This area has been less reviewed in recent times as it's seen as the poor relation to the main 'West End', which has all of the major department stores and fashion chains located there.
I saw a lot of redevelopment work, with the area resembling a major building site with the redevelopment of Tottenham Court Rd Tube, which should mean a lot of new retailers for the area, so watch this space in the coming months. This redevelopment currently rubs shoulders with lots of vacated or demolished stores that used to house Zavvi and the like - but hopefully this landscape should change.
However, there are LOTS of shining lights on the street, and people definitely shouldn't simply avoid this end.
Uniqlo is one of these stars, a smart looking store with innovative revolving window displays that conforms well to the Uniqlo Global VM look. It's not overly inspiring but it's clean, clear and functional with a great combination of big product statements and impactful POS. Nearby and similar to Uniqlo in many ways, Esprit is big, clear and formulaic, but European owned. Whereas Uniqlo has a great product range of versatile, wearable basics and classics, Esprit tries successfully to do more with fashion.
That said, I tire of everything having logos attached and featuring as part of the product design. This only works when your brand is big enough and cool enough for people to feel proud to do your advertising for you! I found Esprit somewhat on the dull side - and at least Uniqlo had a collection of innovative shop fitting ideas, like revolving window displays to catch consumers' attention. Uniqlo should also be admired for its almost 'grocer's' approach to selling clothing, with excellent availability, standards, ease of shop and store navigation all suiting its large, open footprint stores.
I then came across Office, which is a sexy and fun new store very close to Schuh and Faith (the latter now of course in administration). The difference being that the new Office is packed with shoppers buying the latest and most fashionable shoes around. Its VM scheme's based on the British summer theme, with saucy postcards and cheeky seagulls adorning the windows. Instore a postcard frieze harks back to the 1950's and Carry On British summer holidays. It's great Fun!
To Schuh then a store I admire, but it's just not for me. Whilst the windows are well executed with good choice, there's something about the store, which is a bit too Camden Market for my liking - could be my age! Like Office, it has a distinct brand personality, is appealing to young consumers and has an authentic brand delivery.
The real treat on this road though was Urban Outfitters - WOW! Here is a store that has achieved real visual impact on a budget. Occupying one end of the former C&A store, over three floors and a large corner site, the windows were filled with cheaply made and highly impactful fabric bunting. Whilst I have no idea what the display was about/ trying to achieve - the sheer abundance of flags and colour was both impactful and a draw to eager shoppers. Well done to ingenuity over money! It leads the way ahead of many other brands that spend considerably more in their windows - but achieve less standout results.
On to Miss Selfridges, where if I'm honest, the brand seems unclear about who it is and what it needs to do to present itself. The result is an indistinct and ambiguous story. Just what the windows were trying to say in relation to its target consumer is beyond me. Whilst its brand cousin Topshop is confident in how to deliver the brand, Miss Selfridges seems with teenage angst and doubt. The Inditex Group has cracked the right approach for this market with its Bersksa and Stradivarius chains, so it's surely not beyond the brains behind the brand to get the chain on message. As I mentioned, Topshop nearby is wonderful as always and I have to say well done to everyone involved in this 'leadership' brand, this time featuring striking window displays by a similarly striking Japanese artist Houxo Que.
Regent Street
I'm sure without collaboration or collusion, Coast and Banana Republic (almost next to each other) have ended up with windows that are virtually the same. In both, huge oversized paper flowers have been created and used with mannequins. In Banana Republic, these are also set against a gradient rainbow backdrop, which spans the entire Regent Street windows. Whilst the flowers are lovely in both stores, it's the display skills in Coast that win the prize. Excellent mannequin dressing and styling show the product range at its best and make striking use of the small windows. In Brand Republic the display skills are lacking with the resulting displays having a lacklustre and flat appearance. Given the product is less fashion forward too, the result did not shout 'buy me', which should concern the brand as it tries to establish its presence in the very saturated British fashion market, where our UK brands can turn up the fashion pitch.
Down the road Church's windows are holy! In true brand style, leather lined platforms in Union Jack colours house elegant shoe displays, which are sublime. In comparison, instore is a little more gentleman's' club than fashion temple and I'm sure would be quite off-putting and overly exclusive for many shoppers, inspite of the excellent retail standards.
Cos is a shop that I like, but can't get excited about. A 'style driven' H&M offshoot which is highly competent but not heart racing.
Finally what's red, yellow, black, and white with loads of branding and almost nothing to buy? The Ferrari store. The ground floor's principally occupied by a F1 racing car and shop assistants. Customers could be forgiven for thinking they'd walked into a pit stop rather than a store on Regent Street. Inspite of the brand provenance, I struggle with this store. In my opinion, it's a sloppy example of unproductive brand marketing. The store is compromised in so many ways - it has little clarity, is difficult to shop and has poor retail standards. Ferrari is about sexy, sleek Italian style, yet here the shop more resembles a cluttered, over branded stand you'd expect to find at the motor show!
Despite the many big brand closures, with Faith being the latest casualty, this end of the Capital looks to be in good shape and has weathered its latest difficulties well. Inspite of the recession a good number of the brands have used their probably dwindling financial resources to great effect, remembering that this is where consumers come to see the best that brands have to offer. Stores like Urban Outfitters and Office have done this very well with post their VM schemes on a budget that wouldn't look out of place in a bull market.