Last week, I had the pleasure of representing The Retail Champion on a panel for The Future of UK High Streets, hosted by Public Policy Exchange.
The discussion brought together people looking at the high street from very different, but very connected, angles.
Clare Bailey brought her usual depth of retail insight. Kim Hulse spoke about placemaking. Graeme Sharp covered the very real issue of retail crime. Dr Steven Norris and Sean Prigmore from Lambert Smith Hampton added a property and place perspective, while Arvind Venkataramana from Public Policy Exchange helped shape the wider policy conversation.
There were councils, BIDs and place professionals in the room, along with a group of students from the London School of Economics listening in from a lecture theatre.
So, no pressure then.
My contribution came very much from the practitioner side of the table.
Independent retail.
eCommerce.
Marketing.
Customer behaviour.
And the part I come back to again and again:
Being found.
Being understood.
Being trusted.
Because the customer journey for a high street business does not start when someone walks past your shop window.
It starts much earlier than that.
Before they visit: can they actually find you?
One of the biggest mistakes I still see independent retailers making is treating digital visibility as something separate from the “real” retail experience.
It isn’t.
For many customers, digital is the front door.
Before they get in the car, walk into town, book onto your workshop or decide to spend their Saturday visiting you, they are probably checking something online.
Your opening hours.
Your location.
Your website.
Your reviews.
Your stock.
Your social media.
Whether you look like the kind of business they want to visit.
When I had my own independent retail business in Andover, customers would often check opening hours and directions before coming in. Some were looking for specific colours from a well-known paint brand I stocked. Others wanted to know whether it was worth making a special trip.
And sometimes they really did make a special trip.
The workshops I ran became a brilliant footfall driver. I had people travel from London, Brighton and Cambridge to attend. Once, a group even came from Germany while visiting the UK.
That didn’t happen by accident.
It happened because the online journey helped create the in-person one.
People could find the event.
They understood what it was.
They trusted it enough to book.
And then they turned up.
That is the bit many retailers miss.
Your shop may be beautiful. Your products may be wonderful. Your service may be brilliant. But if people cannot find clear, current and convincing information about you before they visit, you are making the journey harder than it needs to be.
And customers are busy. They do not always push through confusion.
Sometimes they just choose somewhere else.
Being found is not just social media
I love social media. Used properly, it can be brilliant for independent retailers.
It helps you show personality, tell stories, launch products, build relationships and remind people you exist.
But it is not the whole job.
Too many businesses rely on social media because it gives instant feedback. You post, you get a few likes, maybe a comment, perhaps a message. It feels active.
But visibility needs more than that.
Google Business Profile matters. SEO matters. Your website matters. Reviews matter. Email matters. Your event listings, product pages and local search presence all matter.
One of the biggest missed opportunities for independent retailers is a neglected Google Business Profile.
Out-of-date opening hours.
Missing photos.
Old information.
No recent posts.
Unanswered reviews.
Incorrect categories.
It sounds basic, but basic does not mean unimportant. It is a massive influence for local SEO.
If someone searches for you and finds unclear or outdated information, that is part of their customer experience. Not a separate admin problem. Not a “digital thing”. Their experience has already started.
And if your website has not been touched since it launched, that is worth looking at too.
A website is not a tick-box exercise.
It is not something you build once, dust your hands off and declare finished forever.
It should grow with your business. It should reflect what you sell now, who you serve now and what your customers need to know now.
Even if you do not sell online, your website is still working for you. Or against you.
Being understood: the five-second test
Being found is only the first step.
Once someone finds you, they need to understand you.
And quickly.
Within five seconds of landing on your website, seeing your Google listing, finding your Instagram profile or walking past your shop window, can they understand:
What you do?
Who it is for?
Why they should care?
How to buy, book or visit?
That is what I mean by being understood.
Not clever wording for the sake of it. Not vague lifestyle copy. Not a homepage that looks pretty but does not say anything useful.
Clear beats clever almost every time.
This matters just as much offline as online.
A customer walking past your shop window is making a quick judgement. So is someone landing on your website. So is someone glancing at your Instagram bio. So is someone reading your Google reviews.
They are all asking some version of the same question:
“Is this for me?”
If the answer is not clear, they may not hang around long enough to work it out. Peoples attention spans are incredibly short.
Being trusted: let other people help you sell
Trust is where so much of the decision-making happens.
For independent retailers, trust can come from lots of places.
Reviews.
Photos.
Consistent messaging.
A professional-looking website.
Clear policies.
A real person behind the business.
Good local reputation.
Customers saying lovely things when you are not in the room.
When I ran workshops, reviews did a huge amount of the selling for me.
After each event, I asked people to leave a review. A high percentage did, because they had spent time with me, enjoyed the experience and understood how much it helped. Those reviews then reassured the next person thinking about booking.
That is how trust builds.
Not through one grand marketing moment, but through lots of consistent signals that say: this is real, this is good, and other people have had a positive experience.
For small businesses, that matters enormously.
You do not need to pretend to be bigger than you are. In fact, please don’t. That way lies beige stock imagery and copy that sounds like it was written by a committee in a cupboard.
But you do need to look credible.
A scruffy online presence can quietly undermine a brilliant real-world business.
During the visit: does the experience match the promise?
The customer journey does not stop when someone arrives.
This is where online and offline need to match.
If your website says warm, thoughtful and premium, but the in-store experience feels chaotic, something jars.
If your social media is friendly and helpful, but your signage is confusing and no one knows what is happening, something jars.
If your Google listing says you are open and the customer arrives to find the door shut, something more than jars. They are probably annoyed and rightly so.
The promise you make before the visit needs to carry through into the visit itself.
That does not mean everything has to be perfect. Independent retail is real life. Deliveries arrive late. Staff get ill. Card machines have moments. Customers ask for things that were discontinued in 2018 and look disappointed when you cannot produce them from a cupboard.
But the overall experience should feel joined up.
Customers should feel they are in the right place. They should understand where to go, what to do, how to buy, how to ask for help and why it was worth coming.
That is customer journey work.
Not as a corporate buzzword. As a practical retail tool.
After the visit: what happens next?
This is another missed opportunity.
A customer has visited your shop, attended your workshop, bought from you, chatted with you or had a lovely experience.
Then what?
Do you ask for a review?
Do you invite them to join your email list?
Do you tell them about the next event?
Do you follow up with useful information?
Do you give them a reason to come back?
The after-visit stage is where loyalty starts to build.
It is also where independent retailers often have a real advantage. You can be personal. You can be specific. You can remember people. You can create community in a way bigger businesses often try very hard to imitate, usually with less charm.
But you still need a system.
Hope is not a marketing strategy. Lovely, but unreliable.
A quick customer journey check for independent retailers
Here is a simple place to start.
Before someone visits you, can they quickly find:
- Your correct opening hours
- Your address and directions
- What you sell or offer
- Whether you have an online shop
- How to book or enquire
- Recent photos
- Reviews from real customers
- Clear information about events, services or workshops
- Delivery, returns or collection information if relevant
- A reason to choose you over another option
During the visit, is it clear:
- What kind of experience you want customers to have
- Where they should go
- How they can ask for help
- What is new, seasonal or worth noticing
- How your shop, website and social media connect
- Whether the experience matches what they saw online
After the visit, do you have a way to:
- Ask for a review
- Encourage a repeat visit
- Keep in touch
- Promote future events or launches
- Build customer loyalty
- Turn a good experience into word of mouth
None of this is about shaming retailers.
I know how much there is to do. I know what it is like to run the shop, manage stock, serve customers, create content, answer emails, sweep the floor and then remember you were meant to post something three days ago.
But that is exactly why the customer journey matters.
It helps you focus.
It stops marketing becoming a random list of disconnected jobs and turns it into something more useful.
Retailers need practical support, not vague advice
One of the strongest themes from the webinar was the need for practical, bespoke support for retailers.
I could not agree more.
Independent businesses do not need another generic instruction to “do more digital”.
They need support that understands the reality of their business.
Their customers.
Their location.
Their margins.
Their time.
Their skills.
Their confidence.
Their capacity.
For some retailers, the priority might be sorting out Google Business Profile and local search.
For others, it might be improving their Shopify site, making product pages clearer or turning their website into something that supports sales.
For others, it may be reviews, email marketing, events, content, signage or simply making the whole customer journey feel less disjointed.
The answer is not the same for everyone.
That is why blanket advice often falls flat.
Digital and physical retail are not separate worlds
Some high street businesses are still treating digital as an optional extra, when for customers it is often the front door.
That may sound blunt, but it matters.
Customers do not think in channels.
They do not say, “I am now having a digital experience, followed by a physical retail experience, followed by a post-purchase engagement sequence.”
Thank goodness, frankly.
They just experience your business.
They search. They browse. They visit. They buy. They ask. They review. They come back. They tell someone else.
Or they don’t.
The job of marketing is to make that journey clearer, easier and more compelling.
Not louder. Not busier. Not more frantic.
Just better joined up.
My takeaway from the panel
I came away from the Public Policy Exchange discussion encouraged.
There are real challenges facing UK high streets. Nobody sensible is pretending otherwise.
But there are also good people asking better questions.
People looking at place, policy, crime, property, community, retail support and customer behaviour. People who understand that high streets are not just rows of shops. They are local economies, social spaces and commercial ecosystems.
My role in that conversation was to bring the practical retail and marketing perspective.
Because if we want high streets to thrive, we have to understand how customers actually decide where to spend their time and money.
And that journey often starts long before they reach the shop.
If you are an independent retailer, start there.
Can people find you?
Can they understand you?
Can they trust you?
Before, during and after the visit.
That is where the work begins.
And very often, that is where the opportunity is hiding.
If you would like practical support with your retail customer journey, digital visibility, website, SEO or Shopify store, I would be happy to talk.
I am also available for speaking, panels, workshops and insight-led events around independent retail, eCommerce, customer journey and high street visibility.