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Cambridge BID chair and Lion Yard boss Roger Allen: Reviving retail by bringing a community feel back to the high street




Following confirmation that Cambridge BID will continue for a further five-year term after a vote of members, Roger Allen, who combines his role as centre manager of Lion Yard shopping centre with chairing the BID board, considers the future for the city’s retail outlets.

Shopping centres need to be destinations that offer a positive experience, says Roger Allen. Picture: Keith Heppell
Shopping centres need to be destinations that offer a positive experience, says Roger Allen. Picture: Keith Heppell

Everything comes full circle. When I think back 20-25 years to when I began my career in shopping centre management, there was always an area designed to deliver an experience for local shoppers. This might have been a kiddies’ play area or creche, kiddie rides (remember those?) or perhaps a food court with a dozen operatives offering everything from Chinese and Indian food to burgers.

These areas did three things: they increased footfall, increased dwell time and increased spend. They made shopping into a day out, an experience.

Becoming more clinical

But around 15 years ago that began to change - for the worse, in my opinion - as property developers started buying up shopping centres in order to make a quick return. There are two types of retail investor: institutions such as banks and colleges who purchase for the long-term, and property developers who renovate quickly in order to sell for a vast profit in three to five years.

In the short term, retail units bring in more rent than experiential areas, so kiddie areas began to be phased out and shopping centres became much more clinical, losing their family feel. Food courts were replaced by individual food outlets, scattered among the shops. The nature of these food outlets changed too, with coffee shops and cafes replacing more diverse cuisines to make sure that food smells didn’t spread to the retail units either side. In the public spaces, kiddie rides were replaced by retail merchandising units or RMUs, which brought in £40,000-£50,000 in rent per year instead of the £5,000 that the kiddie rides might deliver. It became all about profit – and not necessarily about the needs and wants of the customer.

We reached a point where you could walk into 10 different shopping centres and see exactly the same stores in each. Many shopping centres lost the sense of community that attracted footfall.

The impact of Covid

Recently, Covid has woken retailers up to what they probably should have been thinking about a few years before - which is great news for shoppers.

Because of the pandemic, our shopping habits have changed forever - and that goes for the young, old and everyone in-between. During Covid, everybody shopped online at first because that was the only available option. After the lockdowns, people would ‘target’ shop: they visited specific stores – like Timpson shoe repair - to grab what they needed and then they were gone, back to the safety of home. When this kind of behaviour lasts for 18 months to two years, as it did, it becomes a habit. And although people have been getting out more over the past six months, they now need to have a reason to skip the convenience of online - Amazon Prime even offers same day delivery! - and shop in person instead.

Whether or not people will return to shop in store depends on what retailers are offering to bring them in. Apple is an example of a company that has got it right. Staff greet you at the door; they are polite without being overbearing; the store is well-designed, tidy, and beautifully clean. If other stores don’t take a similar approach, they are going to lose out. We’ve got to make it worth customers’ while to come out of their houses to shop, by making shopping into a great experience again. Cambridge BID can help retailers here – we offer an outstanding mystery shop programme, which enables local businesses to prioritise and improve their customer service year-on-year.

Analysing every aspect

Shopping centres need to be destinations that offer a positive experience, says Roger Allen. Picture: Keith Heppell
Shopping centres need to be destinations that offer a positive experience, says Roger Allen. Picture: Keith Heppell

Retailers that were slow to embrace the internet during Covid have really suffered. They’ll need to catch up because, looking ahead, having an internet presence and the ability to fulfil it will continue to be important.

The internet will never replace in-store shopping though, because people will always want to try clothes on, touch and feel the fabric, perhaps take a photo before they purchase. This is why retailers must take a close look at their internal operations, and audit regularly. What makes their in-store experience unique? Do staff still feel like smiling at the end of an eight-hour shift when their feet are hurting? How can the customer experience be improved?

Customer focus is everything: when a customer has a bad experience, they don’t just take their custom elsewhere - they take five of their friends with them. If retailers are going to spend time and money attracting customers, then they should also take ownership of the in-store customer experience from start to finish.

These days retailers want smaller properties, such as the ones we have in Lion Yard, because they want to reduce their overheads and minimise risk. I’ve been inundated by major retailers wanting to come to Lion Yard – there’s hardly a month in the past three years when I haven’t had a national chain inquiring about options. Instead of a 20-year lease, they are looking for five to 10-year, reduced-rent contracts with a break clause.

Restoring a family feel

Five years ago, pre-Covid, Lion Yard was ahead of the game in moving back towards experiential shopping opportunities. Planning takes time, but we are now starting to see some of the fruits of the decisions we made then. We have a hotel coming in where there used to be offices and, in a few months, we will announce the arrival of a major leisure attraction. Meanwhile, we are prioritising local traders and extending our tenancy agreements with unknown, independent brands, not just the big chains, to make sure that our shopping centre has a community feel.

We’re really excited to be developing our night-time offer too. Watch this space: in a year or two, our trading hours could be 10am to 7pm or 8pm at night. We’re in the process of opening five to six good quality restaurants that will make Lion Yard much more than just retail, giving families a selection of options for combining leisure and shopping with dinner. We already have Kineya, our hugely popular Japanese restaurant, which sits alongside Oseyo, our new Korean supermarket.

Cambridge BID has worked hard to win Purple Flag accreditation for the city – a huge accolade that proves the city is safe to enjoy at night. So let’s make the most of the opportunities we have for evening trading and family fun.

And I’ve always felt that Petty Cury has the potential to become like Covent Garden. It could have a fabulous vibe, and so much could be done to create an experiential shopping experience there – we could have bands or buskers playing at the weekends, for example. We’re a little way off that: all of the units will soon be filled on the Lion Yard side of the street, but there are still empty units on the opposite side, waiting for new tenants.

Seeing the whole picture

Behind the scenes, it's the little things that help to keep the city looking fabulous. Cambridge BID is responsible for enhanced street cleaning each month, and our rapid response service helps all retailers to keep their shop fronts looking smart. Together, we take pride in our city.

Looking ahead, I think we’ll see local independents coming front and centre again, as was the case 20 years ago. It’s no surprise really, as there’s nothing better than shopping for a pen, a hat or a kiddie toy that you won’t find in the big chains. Cambridge BID recognised early that independents need support, and we have always been active in providing this – unlike many BIDs who chase the big dollars instead.

The future will be both online and in-person. Those bricks and mortar retailers who survive and thrive will be the ones who are analytical and critical, seeing everything from their customer’s point of view and trying to deliver a great customer experience at every step. We need to put community back at the heart of the customer shopping experience.



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