Shopping has to be an experience – leading consumer expert Conor Pope tells County Tipperary Retail Symposium

Retailers have to be more imaginative and create an experience for shoppers if they are to overcome current market place challenges, a Tipperary County Council organised Retail Symposium has been told.

Kathleen Prendergast, Economic Development Officer, Tipperary Co Co and Conor Pope , Consumer affairs Correspondent, Irish Times

Hosted for Tipperary retailers by the local authority as part of Enterprise Week last week at Ballykisteen Hotel, the free symposium was an essential for Tipperary retailers, featuring presentations from an expert body of speakers, all focused on providing practical and thought provoking ideas to support your retail Business

National retail experts were on hand to give their expertise to owners/operators of stores, including Conor Pope, Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Irish Times; David Fitzsimons, Retail Excellence; Rachel Doyle, Arboretum; Mary McAuliffe, Creative Consultant and Edel Garavan of Irish Web HQ and the “#c’montippbuylocal” campaign.

The consensus from all the speakers was that retailers can survive and, indeed, grow their business despite the challenges.  However, they have to be innovative across all aspects of their business and revert to basics with regard to one specific area – customer satisfaction.

“For retailers to survive, they have to reimagine the world they live in. But too many people are reluctant to reimagine that space,” Conor Pope told the gathering.  “Our world has moved so much in the last 30 years. Yet 80% of Irish retailers have no e-commerce functionality and 22% don’t have any web presence at all.  That would tell me that 22% of Irish retailers won’t exist in five years,” he warned.

One of Ireland’s leading consumer experts, Pope said that his experience over the last 15 years has been that that the public wants a better service and one that puts shoppers in control.  They want reliability and, if things go wrong, they want help.

“As consumers, we want to know that human beings are looking after us and that they care about us.  You can’t compete with the likes of Amazon on price but you try ringing Amazon if you have a problem with product.  The same can be said for all the giant retailers.  Consumers want you to answer the phone and solve their problems,” he told retailers. 

“That gives the small retailer a huge advantage that big giants don’t have; there are human beings looking after us.”

Shopping is also now, he said, about creating an experience, citing Primark’s move in this space by offering nail-bars and various other treatments.  “People can go into shops, get something done and then they might buy a product.  This is the type of thinking that’s proving successful.  Not every retailer is going to offer some life affirming experience in their shop, but every retailer needs to think of ways of making the experience more pleasurable,” he continued.

“Making a customer happy should be the be all and end all for all retailers. If people have a good experience in your shop, they will return. It makes you different from online retailers. The more happy customers you have the less customer churn you have, the more customers will spend and the less negative word of mouth there will be. 

“It is, as we all know, cheaper to hold onto customers than pay to advertise to get new ones in your door.”

Research from Accenture had shown, he said, that Irish consumers are more impatient than ever and harder to impress.  Nine out of ten use online channels when evaluating providers and two-thirds say they have switched providers because service wasn’t up to scratch.  Two-thirds of switchers are also driven by price and 86 per cent are motivated by customer service, with 90 per cent sharing their bad retail experience with at least one person and one in five posting negative comments online. When faced with substandard customer service 53 per cent stop engaging immediately, he said.

“Caring about customers has to be our imperative,” he said.  “You need your shoppers to know that you care. I have hundreds of horror stories and the common thread in all of these is how much the retailer didn’t care about the person’s problem.”

Human engagement is ultimately what it’s all about – Retail Symposium told

Clare Curley, Director of Services Tipperary Co Co, Roger Kennedy, Leas Cathaoirleach, Tipperary Co Co., Rachel Doyle, the Arboretum, David Fitzsimons, Retail Excellence Ireland and Marie Mc Givern, District Administrator Cashel- Tipperary, MD.

Retailers that survive current challenges are the ones that do “human to human engagement well”, one of Ireland’s leading experts has stated.

Speaking at the Tipperary County Council organised ‘Retail Symposium’ at Ballykisteen Hotel, Chief Executive Officer of Retail Excellence David Fitzimons said that retailers have to go the extra mile for their customers and staff if they are to be successful.

Highlighting the pillars that retail success can be built on, the CEO of Ireland’s largest retail industry trade body, which is based in Ennis, Co. Clare, said:  “There are lots of new things happening in retail but the business owners that survive are the ones that do human to human engagement well. No matter what happens the consumer will always respect a personable experience,” he said.

“You must also provide an experience. Shopping is about much more than a product on a shelf; retailers need to wrap the product up in an experience, whether that’s becoming an authority on the product, applying a technology, whatever.

“Another key aspect is that small Irish retailers and businesses are reticent to tell our story and consumers respond positively to a business that has a soul and personality.  While some of the biggest retailers don’t have a personality, lots of small retailers do in terms of passion and creativity.  It’s all about better communications, about stores simply saying we believe in the following.”

The Retail Excellence CEO said that another key pillar is ‘captivating through difference’.  “Retailers need to challenge themselves to be different. There is a lot of sameness on high street. Because your competitor does it, doesn’t mean you do.  It might be your window, might be your store frontage or how you present your product. But it’s about being different.

“Another area is clarity; you must give shoppers clarity. Sometimes retailers can stock way too much whereas I would recommend stocking less to sell more. You need less product but you need to present it with authority.

“Look at the best retailers and you will see why they get clarity.  And many of them have gone through the process of clarification of late where they have destocked 25% of their range.  You can see clearly what they do, what they sell. The recession convinced a lot of retailers to try a lot of different things and there was a tsunami of goods and it didn’t work.”

Ultimately the success of retailers in towns, he said, will largely be down to collaboration.  “There are challenges but it’s all about collaboration.  When you have businesses and local authorities working together, like with this event, you can achieve great things.  For retailers in towns to succeed, we do need to improve public realm, make places more attractive.  We also need to improve the standard of the retail offering.  If we have those two elements working well, consumers will respond,” he added.

Meanwhile, creative consultant Mary McAuliffe said that Storytelling is the best way to create chemistry with people; stories that resonate with people inspire them to take action.  “Every business has a story to tell whether it draws on heritage, nostalgia, craftsmanship etc. But how do you communicate your story?  Most business do this by developing a Brand Identity which helps to differentiate them from other businesses.”

She added:  “The customer must be and is the focus, innovation is the enabler and profit is the reward.”

It’s simple – shop local makes local, says Tipperary campaign driver

A simple €2 extra spend per week in a local shop rather than outside the county would nett businesses here €16million, the driver of a Tipperary ‘shop local’ campaign told the Retail Symposium.

Edel Garavan, of Irish Web HQ and driver of the #Cmontippbuylocal campaign launched in December urged Tipperary people to get behind the social media campaign.  #C’monTippBuyLocal’ campaign, is an initiative of Tipperary County Council to promote greater understanding of the vital role that local retail plays in the economic and community development of the towns and villages in County Tipperary. 

Ms Garavan said:  “Buying from locally owned businesses keeps money circulating closer to where you spend. Every €10 spent locally generates €24 of benefit to the local community and 45 cents of every Euro spent is reinvested locally in comparison to only 15 cents for the foreign multiples.

“Supporting local business and independent retailers is vital for the local economy.  When you spend money with a locally owned business, more money is kept in the community because locally owned businesses purchase more from other local businesses, tradesmen/women and other service providers.  Local business owners also donate more to local charities, sporting organisations, clubs etc. All of this helps sustain a vibrant local community.”

Addressing the attendees on behalf of the hosts, Tipperary County Council, Leas Cathaoirleach Roger Kennedy said that the event was the culmination of work carried out by the Economic Development and Enterprise Strategic Policy Committee who have a specific sub-group working with an entire focus on Retail Supports in County Tipperary. 

This group has been instrumental, he said, in the delivery of a number of key actions targeting supports to independent retailers, including the commercial incentive scheme, Christmas Retail Support Programme, the ‘C’monTippBuyLocal multi media campaign and organising the Retail Symposium.

“This is our first engagement with the retail sector on a whole county basis but we are aware that the issues faced by the sector are the same across the county, the whole of Ireland and further afield,” he added.

Rachel Doyle, the Arboretum