The first Retail Insight column of 2026 sees Richard Saunders, Partner, Retail and James Woodard, Director, Retail at Hartnell Taylor Cook discuss how we need more human collaboration to keep the pulse of our retail sector detectable.
Contrary to popular belief, retail is not dead. When we say we want to revive retail we don’t mean we want to bring back an extinct heartbeat; we simply hope to flush new life into a sector that can greatly benefit from inspiration and innovation. But this isn’t to say that retail needs a complete overhaul to be saved from the clutches of unprofitability and consumer dissatisfaction – people still love, want and need retail and it is this fact that we need to trade on.
Is there no size to fit all?
For high streets and retail centres that really struggle, a few quick fixes will not seal a guarantee on a healthy future. There are also no fixes that we can blanket prescribe, either. We need to be intuitive in each individual case, drawing the right tools from the box. In some instances, no matter how strong your mix of retail, leisure and catering is, if the wider social issues and economic factors haven’t been addressed, the scheme stands a weakened chance of survival, let alone success. But these issues are not the sole responsibility of retailers, despite it increasingly seeming so. Retail needs to be backed from all corners rather than be expected to simply prop itself up.
So, what can we do about retail? An indomitable success plan for the future requires making changes to retail that are in the best interest of the people who use it. Retail is a more organic sector than many take it for at face value. Its primary function is to serve us, whether that be our needs or our interests. Retail must flex and bend to human desires, which though somewhat predictable are not all that easily forecasted. When seeking to optimise retail for the future, we cannot sacrifice ourselves at the altar of prescriptivism. Keeping retail responsive, reflexive and collaborative will be key.
The bigger picture
It is a rare thing to find a retail scheme that works in isolation of any other social infrastructure. You could have a fantastic retail development that is attuned to what people get the most value from – be it great food and drink provisions, cutting edge leisure activities, the hottest shops, plentiful rest areas and all the most rudimentary amenities but ramped up for enjoyment’s sake. But if access to public transport is poor, local housing is few and far between and there is an absence of or a delay in developing professional properties such as offices, student residences and hotels, footfall will never climb to what it needs to be to sustain the scheme over the long-term. It takes an impressive shopping centre – with a controlled environment and singular management – to rise above the issues found beyond the store.
The best retail has to offer is convenience and a sense of community. You need both at once to make it work well. Yet retailers cannot shoulder the burden of wider systemic issues that can sink its well-designed ships. Whether it be high streets or shopping centres, ensuring quality residential, hotel and office stock sit above or around shop fronts is crucial. This is where immediate footfall comes from and where a sense of place originates. The more people you have living in amongst retail spaces, the more personality there is bestowed on it. But what placemaking scheme have you seen be led independently by a retailer?
As support goes one way, so does it the other. A truly co-dependent relationship, retail shopfronts and the surrounding developments are each other’s primary ambassadors. If one offering fails to be attractive enough, it damages the branding of the entire area. That human support network working to a common goal, a thriving socioeconomic hub, may simply cease to exist.
Designed by us, for us
So, to get the balance right requires communication and collaboration across sectors, not just tackling the hardest to answer questions on retailers. To kick-start positive, permanent transformation, heads from all sides (whether Government, industry bodies or wider) must come together and centre any proposed improvements and changes around people – what they want, what they need and what they can actually access to enjoy.
Different people use and love different forms of retail for different reasons and the process of consolidating these purposes starts with co-drawing a site-specific blueprint. This should be informed by landlords, councils, existing and prospective tenants and of course retail and hospitality providers and developers. To bring about proper integration on the ground and deliver top notch retail experiences, conversations need to move away from dramatic tales of retail being on its knees and toward proactive discussions centred around how we can actually help it stay standing.
