Retail - Credit Crunch or Consumer Crunch
Posted by Nikki Marshall on Thursday 8 January 2009Household favourites are shutting down as an alarming rate and the media are full of doom and gloom about the retail industry, so I was delighted to read an article on the Sun website today which supported my own views.
Yes the old ‘classics’ are disappearing at an alarming rate, which in itself is a shame, but in all honesty is this not down to business acumen and the need to move with the times?
As the Sun article highlights ’trading figures at high street favourites Next and Debenhams are cause for hope. Yes, sales are down, but less than expected. Share prices actually soared on the news. There is a lesson to be learned here. Well managed firms like these will beat the slump if they find out what their customers want – and deliver it on time at the right price’
The article continues: ‘Tesco, once dwarfed by Woolworths, didn’t become a global phenomenon by accident. It reinvented itself and captured the imagination of millions as a one-stop superstore....similarly Waitrose is mopping up customers with quality goods and Ocado home deliveries, while unexciting M&S is laying off workers....Wedgewood was stuck in the past and saddled with debt. Yet, just down the road, the Emma Bridgewater pottery business booms.’
I have to agree. The way consumers shop has and is continuing to change rapidly, those businesses which understand this will ride out the tough times we are experiencing at present. Consumers have easier access to shop around now more than ever with online shopping becoming increasingly popular, and therefore there is greater pressure on retailers to deliver. Competition has increased, retailers have to rise to the challenge or fall by the wayside. Ultimately it is the consumer who is deciding their fate.
As the Retail Specialist here at Vector, and in contradiction to what the press may say, IT recruitment in this sector is booming. IT plays a key role in streamlining processes, which many retailers will be looking to do as the credit crunch bites and almost all still have a requirement for IT specialists, no matter how their sales figures are looking.
Yes some will not survive the credit crunch, but many will and they will be the ones who have embraced modern retailing and all it entails.
Emily Coombs, Recruitment Consultant, Retail Specialis.
Extract taken from an article published on www.thesun.co.uk on Wednesday 7th January 2009.
