Pledge your Support for Independent Retail #indieretail

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Clare Bailey

Spend your £££s wisely – a little can go a long way

The CLES (Centre for Local Economic Strategies) did some research for FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) about the value of a £1 spent locally – the results were compelling, sufficient to convince most people that when they shop locally they are genuinely having a positive impact on their community! They discovered that for every £1 spent locally around 50p – 70p of that money recirculates back into the local economy. For the same £1 spent out of town or online only 5p trickles back to the local community. When people appreciate the impact that their choice of where to spend can have we believe that more people will make more effort to spend more with local independent businesses.

New Year Resolutions: Pledge your Support for independent Retail in 2013

As the New Year is just around the corner I want to take a moment to talk about “resolutions”. I want you to ask you to make a pledge. We ALL need to set an example, to put our money where our mouths are as such. If we, as small business owners and independent retailers, don’t spend enough locally it is really rather hypocritical to expect other people in our communities to spend with us. We need to lead by example.

The pledge I want you to make is to divert 20% of what you currently spend with chain stores or big online brands and spend that with your local indies instead – retailers, cafes, bars, restaurants, salons etc. If you can pledge to divert more, fantastic, but 20% will make a huge impact in your area I am sure! Throughout 2013 I will be posting guest blogs from Independent Retailers about their own experiences of shopping indie, promoting their stores and the stores they’ve discovered on their travels. It will be great to hear from you too, to share your experiences.

Spread the word, each £1 spend locally is worth 10 times more to your community

As you begin to make more of an effort to shop indie, you can spread the word of your 2013 pledge to Support Independent Retail. You can explain what you are doing and why, to all the shop owners you encounter. You can tell your family and friends too. You may even be able to encourage them to pledge to do the same. Over time more and more people will get involved, you never know, we may even get it going viral! Before we know it that little bit of effort will soon add up and will make a big difference, particularly because your £1 spent locally is worth at least 10 times more to the local community that if you spent it elsewhere…

Let’s make 2013 the year of the Independent!

It’s obvious but has to be said – our communities are made up of people – people like you – people who work and live there. If we want to help make a difference, to turn around the fortunes of your local area, of your own business, then we all have to start by making changes to how we shop. I hope that 2013 will be a year of positive change for the independent retail sector and for the UK high streets overall. A thriving local community is a great place for us all to be, as citizens, whether we’re business owners or residents.

Happy New Year!

About Clare Bailey

Clare Bailey, The Retail Champion (formerly Clare Rayner), is one of the most well-known and respected retail experts in the UK. With unrivalled knowledge in retail, high streets and consumer matters, she offers unbiased, independent content – whether engaged as a professional speaker, for broadcast media, or for a written feature. Clare is a business woman, entrepreneur and founder of several small businesses. Having been born into a family of successful business owners, it was inevitable that she’d eventually jump off the corporate treadmill and step out on her own! Today her brand portfolio includes The Retail Champion, The Retail Conference, the Future High Street Summit and the Support for Independent Retail campaign. In addition, she is co-founder of Mobaro Retail UK and a non-exec director of Beed Virtual Assistant Services. Having started her career as a fast-track store management trainee for McDonalds, she went on to work with leading retailers such as M&S, Dixons and Argos. She moved swiftly into management roles before being headhunted into senior consulting roles with global software giant SAP, and international management consulting brand, Accenture. Her corporate background in senior retail, consulting and technology roles, coupled with her experience of creating and running her own business, has enabled her to be equally capable whether consulting to global brands or micro businesses. This unique blend has not only positioned her as a leading expert in all things retail, but has enabled her to add meaningful commentary and insight to the debate around the future of the high street, and, how technology is driving fundamental change in the way consumers, and businesses, interact. Clare has become an influential voice in her field, which has resulted in her becoming a regular media contributor and sought-after conference speaker. Often seen on Good Morning Britain, BBC Breakfast, Sky News, and Chanel 5 (to name a few), Clare speaks on a myriad of retail, high street and consumer issues – but is particular adept when it comes to explaining the context behind retail trading results, newly released data, and government stats, in a palatable and informative manner. In addition to broadcast and conference speaking, Clare is the proud author of two best-selling business books published by Kogan Page - The Retail Champion: 10 Steps to Retail Success, published July 2012 and How to Sell to Retail: The Secrets of Getting Your Product to Market, published February 2013. She has provided contributions to various academic texts, including Retail Marketing Management (published by Pearson). With an engaging, conversational yet informative style, Clare writes for press and content agencies, providing features, articles, blogs and opinion pieces as well as contributions to white papers and reports. However, when the situation demands a more serious style, Clare can deliver - In 2016 she wrote an extensive report for a major insurance and risk law firm, as a retail expert witness, to support a public liability suit. She found that project particularly enjoyable as it played well to her strengths – assimilating large amounts of data and information, identifying the key points and articulating that in an understandable manner. When not on TV or speaking at conferences, Clare’s “day job” sees her supporting consumer-facing businesses through her consultancy services. When asked to describe what she most loves about retail consulting it is typically the opportunity to “dig deep”, getting “under the bonnet”, in order to leverage the business data to uncover the insights that lead to “lightbulb moments”. She also loves working on business change programmes that centre on improving the processes and systems to increase profitability by supporting more rapid, better informed decision making, improving the customer experience, or simply by become more efficient and streamlined. In this respect she considers herself a “business engineer” with a brain that works like a relational database! Due to her years of experience, her logical, objective approach, her quick, rational thinking, she is known for being able to cut through complexity, seeing right through to the crux of issues, finding creative solutions that others may have overlooked. As if all that wasn’t enough, Clare is a working mum, juggling a home life in rural Lincolnshire with her partner, their 5 kids, 4 cats, and geriatric Labrador! For all enquiries, contact Clare directly on 01727 238890 or email champion@retailchampion.co.uk.

View all posts by Clare Bailey →