Britain’s retail experts are shifting promotional priorities in-store this summer as classic footfall drivers like advertising, sponsorship and celebrity endorsements fail to halt declining customer numbers on the high street: So says a new retail study released by Norway-headquartered software solutions provider Mohive.

The study, which collates the experiences and opinions of more than 100 retail marketing and promotions experts currently managing campaigns for Britain’s leading high street names, suggests marketers believe they have done everything possible to encourage shoppers out of their homes and into the high streets, and
are now focused on leveraging communications options in-store to boost conversion rates and turn browsers into transacting customers.

Mohive CEO, Lars Unneberg, said: “The real question for retail marketers in the current climate is: ‘What more can we do to improve the performance of the product campaigns and promotions our business depends on?’ While the vast majority taking part in our study seemed to think they had classic external factors like television advertising, PR or magazine promotions covered, nearly eight in ten now say that internal issues like in-store merchandising or staff ability to recommend and advise, are of growing importance in an environment where footfall is in general decline.”

Sponsorship and celebrity endorsements come off particularly badly in Mohive’s study with less than five per cent of respondents saying that they considered these elements to be more important to promotional effectiveness during a recession.

Frugal spending, carefully targeted at elements that promote a good experience in-store, supported by drivers like direct marketing or web/social networks (which are stable or growing in importance) over classic ad spend or sponsorship (which seem to be losing appeal) would appear to be the emerging model of choice
for retail marketers working through these current tough conditions.

The survey gathered thinking from a cross section of the UK’s largest retailers (usually employing 1,000 people or more). To remain candid, respondents were anonymous but categorised themselves in one of six business areas before undertaking the survey.