Is it even Christmas without bright lights, quirky window displays and ‘aww’ inducing advertisements?
One thing is for sure, the base appreciation and expectations of Christmas are the same regardless of the current economic and political uncertainty. The fact is, Christmas is the season where we all want to feel the type of Christmas spirit we’ve spent the last how many years seeing on TV, and a large part of that is shown to be achieved through retail therapy.
Christmas is not all about presents, but it is an enjoyable part.
- Current state of affairs
- The place to be: brick-and-mortar stores?
- Christmas on the high street
- Christmas spotlight
Current state of affairs
As of July, the amount of all shops that are empty spiked to 10.3%, the highest it’s been since January 2015. According to researchers at A&M and Retail Economics companies are having to deal with rising costs, spending 10.8% more on things like increasing business rates, wages and rents as consumers choose to spend 1 in every £5 online.
Analysts say these are all knock-on effects of there being too many stores that are too big and not necessarily in the right location. Companies coming out on the other end are so far the ones with a strong understanding of their customers, and are fulfilling both their needs and wants.
With that being said, Christmas can be a key time for retailers and brands, not because it’s traditionally been seen as a make or break period but because it’s the perfect opportunity for them to make an impression. It’s the time of year where consumers are more opened to ‘buying’ and being receptive to messaging, whether it’s a fairy tale or a dream.
The place to be: brick-and-mortar stores?
Shoppers come to the store for different reasons and expectations. Fact.
The most important objective for a store is to deliver valuable shopping experience to each shopper that passes over the threshold. Fact.
What do you do however, if shoppers no longer want to visit a store? How do you reach them if you’re unable to be physically in front of them?
If providing valuable shopping experiences is the main objective, retailers will have to change the very way they operate to adapt. Where once being a principal point of purchase was enough, there’s now a desperate need to understand that shoppers want a way to ‘experience’ their products and services.
Christmas again provides retailers with the excuse to experiment and prove they understand this shift and are willing to grow with their audience.
Christmas on the high street
Selfridges
Selfridges continue to win the award for ‘Early Christmas Adopter’, which was so in 2018 and unchanged in 2019 when they introduced their first ‘Future Christmas’ campaign 149 days early.
Launching their official festive campaign in early October, the retailer chose ‘A Christmas For Modern Times’ as their theme, which focused on adding a modern twist to Christmas. From casual menswear framed in a sword and the stone window, to Rapunzel’s hair adorned with Simon Rocha’s pearl hair slide collection they achieved their objective of “times may be changing in unpredictable ways, but Christmas remains the same”.
Although there’s very few similarities between the 2 phase’s creative designs, we’re starting to see a trend around time and most especially time to come.
According to Selfridges, this year’s campaign took a team of multi-specialists over 500 hours and 1 year to design and create, as well as more than 100 people working shifts to put together.
To say their windows were impactful, would be a dramatic understatement, but we’ve included a breakdown of the campaign in our Christmas spotlight to see what you think (if you haven’t yet been on the high street and seen it).
Harvey Nichols
Scandinavia most certainly came to the UK on a Harvey Nichols sleigh, and we love it!
Drawing inspiration from Scandinavia, you can now visit your Harvey Nichols store and find projections of the Northern Lights spread across its façade, for what they hope shoppers will find to be worthy of photos and memories.
Continuing the theme, their window displays have been constructed with cedar slat panels, and Christmas garlands to frame mannequins decked out in Harvey Nichols’ Christmas collection.
Inside the store itself, a CANVAS space has been re-modelled into The Secret Forest and open to shoppers who are wanting to catch one of their favourite festive films, whilst enjoying Scandinavian-style snacks and drinks. They also have the option of attending Saturday school.
Harvey Nichols states that their aim is to create opposing contrasts (light and shadow, nostalgia and modernity and cold and warmth). Feel free to let us know if you think they’ve succeeded.
As more retailers begin to unveil their Christmas displays, we will be keeping an eye out and going through some of the best displays and trends later on in the year. Watch this space!
Christmas Spotlight
Download our Christmas spotlight for a more in-depth look at what’s taking place on the high street where Christmas displays are concerned, and decide for yourself if they are more important than people think.
