For style and service, small beats big mall stores

By ELLEN READ

Small businesses can keep pace with - if not outdo - their larger counterparts when it comes to customer service and the retail experience, says a visiting design expert.

Ursula Hudson visited New Zealand as part of a design trade mission hosted by the British Consulate.

She has worked with Australian retailers as a UK consultant for many years and says Australia is caught between Britain and America in the products offered and the way they're presented.

"There's not really a strong identity in their retail. That's probably an awful thing to say but I don't think there is," she said.

"And yet here, I'm finding New Zealand is New Zealand. There's a design identity which I'm really excited about. It's fresh and it's modern."

Hudson said she wasn't seeing so much derivative or copycat product and that there was a sense retailers were proud of their roots.

She runs a course at the London College of Fashion that looks not just at clothes but also at a range of products and their social implications.

Her philosophy is that retailers should be customer-led, matching the product to the customer and realising the importance of the environment the product is in. "The retail interior and the retail experience is incredibly important. The idea is to create an environment in which the customer participates," Hudson said.

Quality and low prices were expected these days so the emotional experience of retail was what gave companies an edge.

Small companies could compete easily with their larger counterparts in this area, she said.

"The trend I see coming is this return to the need for individuality and that's something small business in particular can offer," she said.

Service was also increasingly important and again, small businesses could come out on top there as they could be more flexible to meet the customer's needs.

"Retailers need to identify those key areas and develop them to create their own identity," she said.

In the UK there was a swing away from huge department stores and malls back to small, more personal, shops, Hudson said.

"That's what people are talking about and there is talk about creating a special environment. How retailers differentiate themselves, instead of following, is increasingly important and small shops can do this brilliantly."

Businesses should learn from one another and identify the similarities in order to develop their own identity.

"We sometimes think in design that we have to go back to zero. I don't think you do, we can pick it up from some point. For example, new small businesses don't have to go back to zero, they can learn from what's gone before and build on those foundations."

Hudson said all retailers, regardless of size, also needed to work on service - listening and responding to customers.

"Simple things like not responding quickly enough to inquiries means people will go away and go somewhere else," she said.

Another pattern emerging in the UK was for retail chains to give exposure and opportunities to small businesses.

"Top Shop for example, which is a leader at the moment, employs small design businesses and allows them to put their labels in their stores," Hudson said.