Business as usual? Not for these innovative retailers... Wednesday 28th November 2009

HMV – temporary stores: HMV recently announced it is to open 15 temporary stores over Christmas to maximise Christmas sales and capitalise on increased demand through the demise of entertainment retailers such as Woolworths and Zavvi. Spokesman Gennaro Castaldo was quoted as saying; "In the run up to Christmas there is such a massive demand and there is a real surge of people coming in. About 40% of all our sales take place in the run up to Christmas and sometimes it’s difficult to cater for that demand as efficiently as you’d like”.

The temporary stores will be in a mix of locations from areas where HMV is currently trading, with temporary units acting as spill over to cater for increased demand, as well as a number of locations where HMV do not currently operate (including some ex-Woolworths sites). Whilst HMV plans to then close the temporary sites in January it is believed that any that do especially well, could become permanent. One factor in HMV’s favour is that property management companies will be keen to lease any unused retail space especially in the run up to Christmas and most probably at a favourable rate!

John Lewis’ changing store formats: The economic downturn is also being capitalised upon by John Lewis which, whilst putting expansion plans for 10 new department stores on hold, has instead pressed ahead with a retail experiment, with the creation of John Lewis at Home in a small retail-park outlet.

The initial trial store on the outskirts of Poole, Dorset will focus on homewares rather than its standard full range, and plans to open up 50 stores in this format may go ahead in January 2010 should this trial store be a success. This would be a quite an evolution for the company considering they currently have only 28 stores nationwide.

Like HMV, John Lewis is also taking advantage of cheap deals for empty out-of-town retail space left by the collapse of rivals, but the advantage of the John Lewis at Home stores is the potential of opening within 12 months rather than the 5 years it can take for the department store format to be developed.

Alworths – sounds like...: In November, Alworths will open its doors to the high street with a proposition similar to that of Woolworths. The first store will open in Didcot, Oxfordshire with another four stores open before Christmas.

The stores are being created by former Woolworths employee Andy Latham and he will clearly be hoping to capitalise on the demise of Woolworths selling everything from toys to homewares to the old favourite, pick and mix sweets. Conveniently a number of the stores are being located on the site of the old Woolworths. Alworths will follow a number of other Woolworths spin offs which have already opened such as Wellworths in Dorchester.

The above are just a few of the great examples of how companies are defying the economic downturn and using it to their own advantage, by adapting their business plans to meet customers’ needs in new, exciting and financially safer ways.

The Oxford Research Agency partners retailers in their efforts to stay ahead of the curve and be pro-active, rather than re-active, in meeting customers’ needs. If you would like to find out more about how The Oxford Research Agency can help you future-proof your retail offer, please speak to our retail and shopper insight team (contact Steve King, steve.king@tora.co.uk or Noreen Kinsey, noreen.kinsey@tora.co.uk or call 01865 728272).