Conceptualising town centre image and the customer experience

Hart, Cathy; Stachow, Grazyna B.; Cadogan, John W.

doi:10.1080/0267257x.2013.800900

Cited by 55 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Over the previous decaderetail has been, and still is, undergoing a period of transformation, with key changes including the growth of out-of-city and inner-city developments and the rise of ' convenience culture' (Hart et al, 2013;Peel and Parker, 2017;Thomas et al, 2004). Following the 2008 economic crisis and the emergence of e-commerce, consumers are fundamentally different to how they were pre-recession (Slaughter and Grigore, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aspirations of Retailers and Visitors Towards the Regeneration of Declining Streets in Cities

Turner

Bahaj

Teli

2018

Future Cities and Environment

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City Centre retail spaces are integral to the sustainability of cities, and within this hierarchy secondary shopping streets, which act as hubs for local communities and businesses, have become isolated. There is now a recognised need for academic studies to reverse these trends in these areas, especially in a UK context. This work analysed and compared stakeholders' perceptions of urban interventions in a declining secondary retail area in Southampton. The investigation was based on interviews and surveys of stakeholders, as well as observational studies enhanced through analysis of secondary data.This paper presents the outcomes of such investigations addressing the perceptions and behaviours of retailers and visitors, focusing on where these are aligned or divided. The overall results reveal that retailers are more concerned with 'static' improvements, such as parking provisions or building façade improvements, while visitors are concerned with active and spatial improvements, with street level interventions being the most important. The results also show that (a) whilst retailers may believe that they understand what visitors require; they differ greatly and (b) many aspirations of retailers are costly or dependant on other businesses' intentions. Visitor's desires: include the reuse of vacant stores and creation of public space, which are far more viable, and can be enacted by governance. Such options should be trialled as a means to educate and improve understanding of less traditional interventions. The paper also provides input on ways to make these failing areas more sustainable through a shared vision and wide applicability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aspirations of Retailers and Visitors Towards the Regeneration of Declining Streets in Cities

Turner

Bahaj

Teli

2018

Future Cities and Environment

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“…Therefore, it is useful for stakeholders to check how inviting and hospitable their town centre is. For this purpose, they can employ the 'customer journey', a tool that follows a potential customer through a series of 'touch points', from arrival in town and way-finding to the experience on the spot and the journey home (Hart et al, 2013).…”

Section: Factor 2: the Human Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

People, Place and Partnership: Exploring Strategies to Revitalise Town Centres

Hospers

2017

ESR&P

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More and more town centres in Western Europe are in decline, as indicated by growing shop vacancy rates in shopping streets. To turn the tide, decision makers look for revitalisation strategies. Are there any solutions? Making use of theoretical insights, empirical findings and anecdotal evidence from the Netherlands, we suggest that town centre revitalisation is a matter of connecting people, place and partnership. First, strategies should be based on an understanding of how customers (people) behave. Secondly, redesign of the physical environment (place) might be needed, since visitors prefer compact centres that are built on a human scale and known for a unique profile. Finally, close collaboration between a wide range of local stakeholders (partnership) is essential. We conclude that town centre revitalisation is possible, but takes a lot of energy and patience from the actors involved.

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“…His approach focused upon demographic changes in the British society since the mid-1970's, which brought respective changes in consumer behaviour that in turn led to change in the retail sector. The impact of consumers' behaviour to the changes of the High Streets is prevalent in the research of Hart and her colleagues (Hart et al, 2013;Stocchi et al, 2016). They suggest that consumers, or the catchment of the High Streets and town centres, search for a holistic experience that includes a mix of the tangible and intangible, for example, the store and the product mix, and the social events that create excitement and novelty, in addition to functional features, such as ease of movement and parking (Stocchi et al, 2016).…”

Section: Retail Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impact of consumers on High Street change is also reported by Wrigley et al (2015), who identified consumer groups among the stakeholders that influence the evolving High Street configuration. The importance of understanding the changing perceptions of the catchment on the image of the High Street is also stressed by Hart et al (2013) who maintain that understanding the perceptions and expectations of the catchment will ultimately drive the delivery of an attractive place. Hart et al (2013) also suggest that the understanding of what is delivered on the High Street is the result of a mental process that reduces the complex offering to anchors that can be recalled and easily classified in a person's memory.…”

Section: Retail Changementioning

confidence: 99%

How to reinvent the High Street: evidence from the HS2020

Theodoridis

Ntounis

Pal

2017

JPMD

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.*Related content and download information correct at time of download. Purpose -The purpose of the paper is to present and critically discuss the findings of the ESRC-funded HS2020 project. The aim is to discuss the retail-led change that has happened to the High Streets that participated to the project that, in some cases, is revolutionary and is leading to the reinvention of the place. To do so reference is made to various retail change theories discussing both institutional and consumer-led change.Design/methodology/approach -This is a discussion paper on the findings of the HS2020 project. Findings -The major finding reported in this paper is that the reinvention is a natural learning process that involves the comprehension of change and the development of knowledge that will lead to the reinvention of the High Street.Research limitations/implications -The findings of the research are based on data that were collected from a total of ten towns across the UK.Practical implications -The paper suggests that to reinvent the High Street the stakeholders that are involved in the place decision-making processes they should embrace the change as a natural development and try to understand and learn from it rather than resisting to it. The HS2020 project provides a comprehensive guide of the areas that change can be managed and if it happens it can facilitate the reinvention.Originality/value -The paper is relevant to the academic community, as it offers insight to the theories of retail change, and to the practitioners, as it provides evidence as to how to deal with the change that happens to the High Streets.

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Conceptualising town centre image and the customer experience

Cited by 55 publications

References 84 publications

Aspirations of Retailers and Visitors Towards the Regeneration of Declining Streets in Cities

Aspirations of Retailers and Visitors Towards the Regeneration of Declining Streets in Cities

People, Place and Partnership: Exploring Strategies to Revitalise Town Centres

How to reinvent the High Street: evidence from the HS2020

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