The Queen’s diamond jubilee was a reason for mass celebration
across the country with millions watching the river pageant,
concert and the procession over an extended bank holiday weekend.
What’s more, according to a report by eCommerce services provider
Venda, retailers were in jubilant mood for other reasons
too.
Over the long weekend in June, Venda saw a 38 per cent increase in
online transactions across its customer base, which includes
retailers such as Heal’s, Emma Bridgewater and Accessorize, with
a 34 per cent increase in sales values. It also noted that brands
strongly associated with “Britishness” saw sales
values increase to six times the amount spent during the royal
wedding weekend last year. What this demonstrates, says Venda, is
that brands seized the opportunity to capitalise on their
Britishness to make the most of this key retail period.
Looking ahead, it concluded that those retailers that have an
event-led retail strategy in place will be best placed to
maximise their sales opportunities in the months to come-namely
during this year’s London 2012 Olympic Games.
Stella Hartley, an independent multichannel marketing consultant,
explains, “An event-led strategy means that the retailer
can create relevant content whether offline or online that
resonates with customers at specific times. In the next few
months we are all going to be involved with the Olympics in one
way or another and like the diamond jubilee there will be
opportunities to celebrate Britishness as well as
sport”.
One retailer proudly celebrating its British roots is Crew
Clothing, a company founded in Devon with strong ties to the
sailing community. For the jubilee it ran a “fly the
flag” promotion, applying discounts to clothing emblazoned
with the Union Jack and promoted its heritage range with special
offers. For the Olympics, brand marketing director Sarah Baskcomb
says the company is sponsoring athletes, including rower Louisa
Reeve and the Paralympic GB boccia squad. In addition, window
displays scheduled for early July will be decorated with medals
and flags to show support for the British team and celebrate the
“great things happening in Great Britain,” she says.
Crew Clothing also has a pop-up store in the Olympic Village in
Weymouth, where the sailing events are held.
A sporting chance
Among the memorable displays from the jubilee, Hartley notes,
“Ted Baker did a great job with corgis wearing union jack
waistcoats and ginger beer served in stores, Cath Kidston looked
good too with strong window displays, Selfridges had fantastic
windows, managing to be both patriotic and ironic. John Lewis
looked good with a real product focus, White Stuff created
jubilee events in stores with a variety of activities, River
Island cleverly created a nod to the jubilee with a punk garden
party theme, again with corgis.”
But for the Olympics, what of retailers that don’t have an
obvious link to sport? Stella Hartley says brands with no
sporting connections “can still create celebratory British
events and put their best foot forward with windows and
homepages”.
Nursery and maternity retailer JoJo Maman Bebe, for example,
created store displays to celebrate the jubilee and the Olympics.
But the timing has been “tricky” as the Olympics span
the company’s summer season, sale and new autumn collection
launch, says managing director Laura Tenison. “We managed
to find a way of promoting all of them simultaneously, but it
required some imagination”.
For Traidcraft, a charity trading arm, the focus has been on the
community and the sorts of events its network of direct sellers
will be organising. “The Olympics will connect communities
across the UK and Traidcraft is encouraging its sellers to use
fair trade when organising their local and community-based
events,” says Jane Riley, business development director.
This includes, for example, offers on barbecue products,
refreshments for sports quizzes and party-food ingredients.
Riley is hopeful that the “feel-good factor” around
the games will have a positive effect on retailers. But, as the
jubilee celebrations coincided with schools’ half-term week and
Crew’s sale, Baskcomb says it’s been difficult to gauge just how
much of the sales uplift during the period could be attributed to
the company’s event-led promotions to date.
Online gifts retailer Prezzybox has no plans to jump on the
bandwagon, so founder Zak Edwards says the business will focus
its efforts on more targeted promotions specifically aimed at its
demographic segments, “as opposed to running a ‘must-have
Olympics deals’ like 99 percent of lazy marketers will be
doing”. He warns, “Gone are the days when retailers
of all shapes and sizes can just jump on the latest event to
promote their brand. Not only are consumers much more marketing
savvy nowadays, but they are now literally bombarded with
promotions-from newsletters, through to adverts on
Facebook.”
Olympic impact
“The Centre for Retail Research predicts a 3.7 percent
(£3 billion) increase in sales between June and August
because of the effect of the jubilee and the Olympics, with 27
percent of this coming from online,” says Hartley. And,
while “there will undoubtedly be some transport issues in
London that could affect retailers, online retailers will
benefit, particularly as many London office workers will be
encouraged to work from home.”
However, some reports suggest that the London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games will cause widespread disruption to home
shopping as well as to retail in general. It won’t be just
London-based businesses that will have to make contingency plans
either: London deliveries represent nearly a fifth of all
deliveries in the UK, meaning it’s likely that even if the
retailer is not London-based, a significant number of its
customers will be.
But so far, retailers aren’t fazed, nor do they believe sales
will go through the roof. Kevin Hague, managing director of
Scotland-based Greenfingers.com and PetPlanet’s parent company M8
Group, says this year’s summer of sport won’t affect demand for
gardening or pet products, so won’t have a noticeable impact on
his business. Likewise, JoJo Maman Bebe’s Tenison adds that
“if people are indoors watching the TV they are not buying,
full stop”. Zak Edwards of Prezzybox adds “if we were
a souvenir shop selling Olympic mascots then maybe we’d see a
rise in sales, but otherwise I think it will remain pretty
static”. Then there’s the effect of the weather, “if
the sun happens to shine, then people in the UK look to take full
advantage of it and head outdoors. Consequently, sales numbers
tend to deplete a little,” says Edwards.
That said, for Crew Clothing’s Sarah Baskcomb, the jubilee and
Olympics are less about a sales uplift and more about morale
boosting. “It’s about British companies showing support for
Great Britain and giving consumers the opportunity to forget the
gloom and celebrate what they belong to,” adding that
retailers need to “box clever” to really make the
most of the opportunity presented by the nation’s celebratory
mood.
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