�1

The 2015 Leamington Spa Independent Retail Outlook

Enactus Warwick - Business Intelligence Unit

�2

MEET THE TEAM

�3

The Enactus Warwick Intelligence Unit’s overall aim is to improve the local business environment through identifying opportunities and issues within the community and propose actionable recommendations on how to capitalise on these opportunities or how to tackle common problems. Through this we aim to increase business revenues; cut costs and improve overall engagement between the University of Warwick and the local business environment. Our target is to increase overall student spending in the local business environment by £250,000 over the course of the next year.

Daniar Rusnak, Director of Enactus Warwick Consulting A final year Law and Business Student who has been primarily responsible for developing relationships for the Intelligence Unit.

Evelyn Gower, Team Leader of the Intelligence Unit A final year Management student who has been leading the entire team, keeping us all on our deadlines and committed throughout the process.

Ria Sethi, Retail Specialist A final year Management student who has been our primary retail expert.

Zara Yaqoob, Technology Specialist A second year Philosophy student who has been our technology specialist.

Tomas Gliviak, Data SpecialistA first year Management student who has been primarily responsible for the development of the survey, data analysis and operational implementation.

Eleanor Huish, External Relations A first year Mathematics student who has been our primary lead in developing relationships with businesses and external parties important to the Intelligence Unit.

CONTENTS

�4

1. Foreword 5

2. UK High Streets & Leamington Spa 6

3. Problems Identified 7

4. Solutions

1. Student Engagement 8

2. Experience 10

3. Digital Marketing 12

4. Data Analytics 14

5. Policy and Predictions 16

6. The Future of the Intelligence Unit 17

7. Enactus Warwick Consulting 18

8. Data Collection 20

FOREWORD

�5

Enactus Warwick is a student-led organisation aimed at creating social impact through entrepreneurial action. Enactus Warwick Consulting is a student pro bono consultancy working with charities and businesses in the local community by pairing them up with some of the most talented students at the University of Warwick. Past projects have included successful business turnarounds, helping start-ups getting on their feet and designing marketing strategies for charitable organisations. Every year we work with approximately 15 organisations in the local community from Birmingham, Coventry, Leamington Spa and beyond with approximately 90 talented student consultants offering their fresh perspectives, rigorous analytical skills and raw ambition to advise them. While our work with organisations has been greatly successful and even generated nationwide acclaim, this year, we begin a new innovative project; the Enactus Warwick Intelligence Unit.

Through our work with the community, we have come to notice how disconnected the university is with Leamington Spa. This may be due to the relative youth of the university, but we believe that as students we have a responsibility to contribute to the development of Leamington and its businesses as it provides us with an excellent place to live.

We hope that both students and local businesses will heed our call to a greater future unity. We want to create a bond through this project and encourage other student activities to engage with the local community in similar ways.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made this project possible. Firstly, the Leamington BID for providing us with crucial support and feedback throughout our research activities. Secondly, our WBS Mentors Maja Korica; Stephen Roper and Bryan Thomas (the CEO of CPB Projects Ltd. (WBS Alumni)) for assessing our work. Enactus Warwick Consulting for building the blocks to bring this project to reality, and finally, the independent businesses of Leamington Spa who have given their time for our research.

Sincerely, Daniar Rusnak, Evelyn Gower, Eleanor Huish, Tomas Gliviak, Ria Sethi, Zara Yaqoob

UK HIGH STREETS & LEAMINGTON SPA

�6

UK high streets are facing a large degree of uncertainty. High-street spending has fallen significantly over the past decade. In 2000, 49.9% of total retail spending was on the high street, this has now fallen to 39.9% (Economic Policy and Statistics 2014). This decrease is associated with pressure exerted by large out of town centre shopping, online retailers, digital delivery and robust physical delivery infrastructure in the UK.

In response, some UK high streets have managed to differentiate themselves and emphasise their unique features in order to attract custom. For example, Ludlow and Stratford-upon-Avon have been highly successful in developing nat ionwide reputations for food and history respectively. However, other high streets are suffering, with towns in the North West being worst hit - seeing 17% of shops unoccupied (The Local Data Company 2014).

The Leamington high street has to compete against the same issues mentioned above. However, the town has some distinctive features that present opportunities for growth - its spa and floral heritage, excellent restaurants, cafes, independent businesses, and large student population. Businesses must leverage these factors and focus on things like the student population and experience-based retailing (going beyond selling products and services, and creating an excit ing and emotive exper ience for customers) in order to create a profitable environment that will attract custom long into the future.

PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED

�7

Our survey has shown that currently, there is a feeling of confidence within the independent businesses in Leamington Spa, with a majority expecting a growth in revenue over the coming year. However, we know that there are always ways in which the business environment can improve and our survey has highlighted various problems that many independent businesses in Leamington are currently facing. A summary of our findings are presented below.

Initially we asked businesses to identify main problems and found that 4 areas were regularly mentioned:

• Increasing footfall• Lack of customer loyalty• Increasing costs• Brand awareness

When asked about the relevance of various technologies to their business, the majority of businesses claimed that, for each area suggested, that technology was not relevant to them. This is an interesting finding - we feel it highlights a lack of understanding and awareness. Social media was the most popular form of technology used by surveyed businesses, with all of them stating that it was relevant in some capacity. However, extended research on this topic has shown that many businesses could benefit from further guidance on the benefits that this technology can provide.

Collecting customer data was something that almost all businesses stated they were doing, yet only 50% felt their practices to be adequate. We noticed that this data was mainly collected through face to face conversations and feedback from customers, very few businesses were using data analysis software.

Surprisingly, 70% of businesses surveyed could not identify a unique customer market, and therefore may not be tailoring their products or services. University students were only being targeted by 50% of the businesses, despite the 5000 students living in Leamington. Out of their £84m spending power, only £2.4m is being spent in local businesses. We believe this is a result of two things - businesses overlook the student market and students are not aware of what local businesses have to offer.

The remainder of this report will address how some of the findings and problems identified can be resolved. We have split solutions into 4 main categories; student engagement, experience retailing, digital marketing and data analytics.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

�8

What makes Leamington Spa unique is its close proximity to the University of Warwick. With around 5000 students living in Leamington every year, this presents the distinctive opportunity for businesses to engage with the university and the students. In the following pages, we have identified possible ways for businesses to enter the student market and benefits that can be gained from doing so.

Tailoring to students Following a survey conducted on students, we found that 63% believe that businesses in Leamington Spa do not effectively meet their needs. By tailoring product and service offerings to students, your business can attract this segment, raising revenue and

Societies The University of Warwick has more than 250 societies located on campus, ranging from food and drink oriented societies to cultural and fashion groups. By exclusively partnering with societies, your business can enter the student market. We identified word of mouth recommendations as one of the major reasons students will choose to use the products or services of a new business, and partnering with societies has been seen to create these recommendations.

Warwick Cocktail Society The society has organised pub crawls with different businesses like Leif Tearoom and Piano Bar agreeing to extend their happy hours for the society.

“I would definitely recommend the businesses to friends, they’re so friendly!”

Vipan Parmar, CocktailSociety Exec2014-2015

Zou Bisou Recognising the importance of taking into account customer needs, owner Stephanie Summers recently launched a discount for students visiting the cafe after 6pm to run throughout the exam term of the University of Warwick.

“I remember what it’s like being a student. I wanted to create an environment where students can take a break from revision in the evenings, feel extra welcome and feel like we care.”

Stephanie Summers, Owner of Zou Bisou

�9

Raising and Giving society:

Student skills The proximity to the University offers the opportunity to employ student skills in exchange for providing students with valuable experience and insight into the workings of a business. Examples of such an association would be social media management by students for businesses, bands and DJ’s performing in cafes and restaurants and ad hoc services such as those provided by organisations like Warwick Enactus.

Our research identified social media as an important tool that can be employed to improve operations and increase popularity amongst different consumer groups.

When questioned about the use of social media in their businesses, business owners indicated that while they would like to use social media, they don’t have the time to learn how to effectively use it and/or regularly update the different outlets.

Keeping this in mind, we suggest there is an opportunity for you to utilise the student population to your advantage. With students at the university being adept at using social media, employing students to set up and monitor social media profiles would provide them with the valuable experience of managing a marketing communications platform for a real business in their spare time at university. For business owners such as yourself, this is a great chance to utilise student skills at a low cost.

With the student population increasing, it is becoming more and more important for businesses to engage with this demographic. Utilising word of mouth advertising through partnerships with societies, tailoring product/service offerings to meet student needs and utilising student skills are all simple yet effective ways of creating this engagement which will be crucial in capturing a bigger share of the £84m student market.

Raising & Giving Society Raffle prizes such as vouchers were donated to the society by businesses such as Nando’s, Momenti and The Jug.

“Giving raffle prizes has definitely improved the society's relationships with venues - we've held socials at restaurants that've given us raffle prizes before simply because we wanted some way of saying thank you.”

Andy King, President ofRAG 2014- 2015

EXPERIENCE

�10

As highlighted previously, with increased online competition, the high street is no longer primarily about utility - it is about differentiation and experience. One way of creating this experience is hosting unique events, activities and workshops. These events offer a great way to increase revenue, improve capacity utilisation and appeal to a new customer group.

They can take many forms, for example:Using your skills and knowledge to teach those willing to learn Sarah Horne is a multi-award winning florist based in Leamington. She has fully embraced this idea, running a regular flower school and evenings with champagne, dinner and flower arranging.

Tasting events SH Jones, a wine merchants on Regent Street regularly runs wine tasting events, charging for tickets but with the aim of selling the products being tasted. This could be altered to attract a different customer group, for example an introductory event with cheaper wines for students. Particularly relevant for businesses that deal with food or drink, but with some creativity this concept could be expanded.

Opening your space to be used by other organisations If you have a space that is flexible, why not make it available during times that you are quiet or closed to create extra revenue? An example of a business in Leamington that is already working this strategy is Havana Cafe on Warwick Street. They are a Cuban Cafe which runs salsa nights every Wednesday whilst serving cocktails and tapas.

New product launches and new season stock previews Taking Shape, a clothing boutique on the parade launched its Christmas evening and party wear with an event involving competitions, dancing, drinks and hair and makeup advice.

Transforming your space outside of normal opening hours Ginger Ace on Regent Street recently launched its ‘After Dark’ events. Normally a cafe, the business extended its opening hours and offered alcohol and music to great success.

�11

Events for loyal customers Esque is a beauty salon on Bedford Street. They recognise the benefits of keeping a loyal customer base and so they hold events for their top customers with discounted treatments. Offering events like this creates a great incentive for customers to hand over their personal information, meaning that products and services can be tailored to the customer base more effectively.

Incorporating a new element for a limited period of time Warwick Street Kitchen on Regent Street hosted local artist Jane Williams and her paintings for a week in the summer. This added an interesting, interactive element to the cafe, mutually beneficial to both parties. Adults could browse the art or watch Jane at work whilst enjoying food from the cafe whilst children could have a go at drawing themselves. Another idea would be to invite local musicians into your business, so that they could advertise their services whilst creating an inviting atmosphere, offering something unique for customers to experience.

Collaborating with other local businesses Rather than seeing other local businesses as competition, why not explore the mutually beneficial opportunities to collaborate? McIntosh and Paul, a gifts and home accessories retailer on Regent Street celebrated its 1 year anniversary by opening late and offering mulled wine and mince pies from the Rustic Food Company next door.

Sarah Horne Flowers Sarah runs a monthly Flower School which offers clients the chance to learn how to make arrangements whilst sampling locally baked cakes. After networking with others in the industry, Sarah decided to add various courses for birthdays and hen do’s on a demand basis. Sarah kindly offered some advice for any business attempting to set up a similar service:• Always do your research - need to assess whether there is demand for the service • Don’t give up if it doesn’t work immediately - it takes time and hard work • Think about advertising - advertising in the press is often too expensive, but you

could invite the local press to experience your service and write a story on it, or collaborate with local businesses to promote in a mutually beneficial way. Sarah says that most of her business comes from recommendations and a pavement sign.

These courses add an extra day of turnover to Sarah’s business each month. She says they are an invaluable chance to get to know customers and tell stories about the business, creating a relationship meaning that attendees think about Sarah’s flowers and other services when they are in need in the future.

Planning these events is one thing, but making your target audience aware is another. The Leamington Spa website has an ‘Events’ section and social media can be really effective (as we show in the next section of this report). There is also potential to create relationships with other local businesses, as Ginger Ace and Coffee Architects have done, so that events can be advertised in a mutually beneficial way.

DIGITAL MARKETING

�12

In the last five years, the use of social media has dramatically increased. Both corporations and SME’s alike have been employing more tools that allows them to interact with customers on a more personal level. In a report, it was found that 42% of SMEs do not use social media, but 61% of those who do, believe that it is worthwhile to the business. With social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it has never been easier for SMEs to connect with their consumers.

The main reasons for adopting social media practices are as follows:Building customer relationships: This is one of the most important reasons to use social media for any business. Using Twitter and Facebook will allow a business owner to instantly and directly communicate with their current and potential customers. It means that customers can build relationships with the business owner and it also helps the business owner to consolidate their brand.

Adapting and improving: Social media exposes the business owner as well as the business, which can be made into positive or negative exposure. To make this positive, it is important to take feedback from your followers and use it to your advantage. For example, if, they want more pictures of competitions, then it might be best to integrate this in some way.

Increasing web traffic: In order to keep up with competition, it is vital that your business is able to increase web traffic and divert it from alternative sources. Using social media frequently will mean that your website (and social media profiles) will be at the top of Google search, and will this make your various profiles more accessible to current and potential customers.

Winning new customers: As an SME, it can be difficult to be consistent with social media. However, if done correctly, you can expose yourself to new people and demographics, such as students. By allotting specific times in the day, or allocating the responsibility to one person will make it much easier. There are also applications that can be downloaded, such as HootSuite, which will allow you to look at your Twitter account more systematically. More of these will be discussed.

Keeping up with competition: by having a social media presence, you are automatically aligning yourself with your competition. Having online competitions or discounts are a great way to distinguish yourself, and means your customers will interact with you and your business on a daily basis.

�13

Sweet Tayloula This sweet shop is a fantastic example of how to use social media well. They often hold competitions on Facebook, directly respond to customer requests and complaints, and post pictures of events. They also synchronise all their social media profiles, so their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts are all consistent.

Tools to keep control of social media accounts Keeping control of social media accounts can be difficult. However, with the right tools, they can be managed effectively. Applications that you could utilise include:

Types of Social Media There are many types of social media. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the most popular with 31%, 37% and 30% of SME's using them to interact with customers. Instagram is used less, but considering the business environment of Leamington, and Instagram’s popularity amongst SME's in Leamington, it is another form of social media that should be considered. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are fantastic ways of keeping in contact with customers, whereas LinkedIn is better for expanding your network in Leamington Spa and the Warwickshire area.

Using social media is becoming increasingly important for SME’s. While it can be initially difficult to get used to and initiate, the rewards for investing some time into creating and updating social media accounts will be worthwhile. It can be used to build a buzz around your business, improve your brand reputation, help you find out more about the needs of your consumers, attract new talent and improve customer loyalty. There is plenty of evidence of this, and as the majority of social media is extremely cost-effective, there is no real reason to not starting using it.

Using one or two of these well, will mean that you can schedule automated tweets and Facebook posts, have access to in-built analytics software that report on your performance, as well as giving you advice on who to interact with and when to schedule posts. Most of these applications have free demos and then they either do monthly subscriptions or a plan specific to your business.

• Hootsuite • Social Mention • Klout • Social Booster

DATA ANALYTICS

�14

In this section, we would like to show you that data analytics is not something to be afraid of, but that using the right tools can support your business in many ways. There are four solutions presented, all of which are free and can help you to understand who your customers are, what is driving traffic on your website or engagement on your social media profiles and how to use this information.

80% of the businesses we surveyed have social media profiles and 75% of them own a website. However, less than 20% use customer analytics and less than half use any data analytics tools whatsoever. Data analytics software was the form of technology that most businesses wanted to learn how to implement.

We believe understanding data is a key skill in delivering relevant products and services. To make it less daunting, imagine it as simply understanding the bigger picture and numbers behind it. These tools will help you to put those number into context and make them more understandable.

Facebook analytics This is a free, easy to use and simple tool from Facebook that allows business owners to see how their engagement with online followers is working. It provides data on, demographics of followers, post reach, engagement and page likes.

Using these tools, you can understand what kind of content to post, how to optimise pages according to where likes are coming from, reach desired levels of engagement, see which posts work and which don't and when fans are online. Moreover, it provides additional information about what external sources are driving traffic to the page, i.e. if people are coming from the business webpage.

This is essential information that can give a basic overview and drag down costs, however this is best used in conjunction with other software to provide more valuable insights.

Watson Analytics Watson Analytics is a valuable piece of software from IBM that was launched just recently. It is an intuitive data analytics software package that aims to provide similar services that experienced data miners offer. It currently operates in a freemium model (free up to a certain amount of data) and could be very valuable for you as a small business, enabling you to understand relationships in data that cannot be easily spotted.

�15

Google Analytics Another useful piece of software is Google Analytics, particularly helpful for the 80% of our surveyed businesses that have a website, but even more for 15% that are planning to implement an e-commerce site. It helps businesses to understand their websites, where traffic is coming from, if their online and social media campaigns are working and why or why not people are staying on their website.

SumAll The most impressive software out there is customer relationship management and analytics software. There are many many solutions available at different price points, tailoring to both big and small businesses. The one that impressed us most was SumAll. It integrates all the data from social media, e-commerce, emails, google analytics, campaigns and more to one report that allows businesses to track and show relationships between, for example, a Facebook post and sales of a particular product.

New York Live Arts New York Live Arts used SumAll to discover that Instagram was a valuable channel for them. They also found out when their campaigns weren't working as anticipated, allowing them to target more effectively.

There are many other useful pieces of software available on the market that can drive engagement, lower costs, improve targeting and serve many other functions, ultimately making your business more profitable. Most of these services have easy-to-understand websites and videos to teach you how to use them. It is not only about using analytics software like Excel, but also online platforms that gather and analyse data on the go, making it available to you, freeing up your valuable time and allowing you to make decisions when they are due.

The Spillers Group This restaurant chain uses an app called Roambi to share and collect data from their tills, accounting information and labour metrics to determine managers' pay in relation to restaurant performance. This has decreased their labour costs by 10%. This solution is more applicable to businesses operating/planning to operate more than one shop.

POLICY AND PREDICTIONS

�16

In the survey, we asked businesses what policies or schemes they felt would benefit the Leamington high street as a whole.

The next most popular policy change was increased government concessions, a choice we predicted to be popular, a n d a n i n c re a s e i n e v e n t s i n Leamington, which BID have plans to implement.

Parking was identified as a common problem for businesses in Leamington, with the most popular policy suggestion being longer periods of free parking. Other popular suggestions included an increase in parking facilities, park and ride facilities and a scheme offering discounts to parking after spending on Leamington’s high street.

Predictions We also asked businesses about their opinion on the growth of the high street in the past and their predictions for the year to come. The majority of businesses surveyed were positive about the state of the business environment over the past year in Leamington, with an even larger majority predicting a positive change for the coming year. Data from BID Leamington reports support this trend and with the BID’s ongoing plans to encourage more visitors to Leamington Spa, these results should continue into the future.

Posi%ve((55%(

The(same(38%(

Nega%ve(2%(

No(response(

5%(

Predictions for change in the Leamington business environment

over the coming year

THE FUTURE OF THE INTELLIGENCE UNIT

�17

The Intelligence Unit will continue next year, building on the progress that we have made this year…

Tomas and Eleanor are both first year students and they will recruit a new team next academic year in order to continue the work of the Intelligence Unit. They plan to assess the impact of our research by following up with businesses to see if any of the suggestions we made have been implemented. We hope they will find success stories and gain feedback in order to improve the usefulness of future reports.

This year has been an opportunity to try out ideas, but there have been difficulties along the way. The team next year will learn from our mistakes and build on our progress in order to create an even more insightful report. They will increase the scale of the project, getting more businesses involved, gaining deeper insights and improving the validity and credibility of research results. We hope that the team will also be able to start spotting trends in the growth and confidence of independent businesses.

The team will continue using surveys but with some changes. Making questions more specific, relevant and easier to understand. We are planning to introduce more interviews to ask about opinions, context and gain even deeper understanding. The biggest change will be the introduction of focus groups with students to give more relevant insights on students needs and desires and how these are reflected in Leamington.

Finally, having noticed a demand for help with student interaction, the team will spend more time researching ways in which the Intelligence Unit can use its own expertise as students to encourage this. We hope that you find our research useful and will be willing to take part in this project next year.

ENACTUS WARWICK CONSULTING

�18

The Intelligence Unit is a subset of a larger organisation, Enactus Warwick. Enactus Warwick is a society at the University of Warwick founded in 2005. Enactus, formerly known as SIFE, is a global non-profit organisation in over 1800 universities. Enactus is a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. At Warwick, drawing on the talents of our globally leading Business School, Economics and STEM departments has built Enactus Warwick Consulting; a pro-bono student consultancy dedicated to helping local charities and business by providing advisory services.

If you are looking for advice on your strategy, marketing, operational support or further tailored advice in relation to the recommendations contained within this report; please get in touch. Each project involves 6 talented students, generally a mix of Business, Economics and Mathematics students. They work under the supervision of the professional services firm EY Advisory as well as WBS Professors. The engagement lasts approximately 5 months.

This proposition is in return for your time and a voluntary charitable donation to Enactus Warwick. The donation is voluntary and dependent on your satisfaction with the work. The amount of the donation is also fully in your discretion. These have ranged between £250 and £500 in the past. The most important value Enactus Warwick students receive from participating in projects is practical experience associated with such an engagement, exposure to real world problems, exposure to EY Advisory and inspirational business owners like yourself. This model of consulting engagement has been undertaken by 53 organisations since 2009 and the overall model, quality and size of our organisation has been recognised at national level by Enactus UK. http://www.enactusuk.org/what-we-do/project-stories/warwick-consultancy.

�19

We invite you to read about one of our project engagements:

Brief: Client requested our help to grow profitability and revenue as they had been experiencing negative profits since the financial crisis of 2008. Action: The team conducted a company and market analysis to paint an accurate picture of the business environment the company operated in. Following this analysis, the team developed creative approaches to the problem and actionable recommendations that were simple for the client to implement.

Impact: Following up with our client a few months later revealed that our strategy and pricing recommendations drove both revenue and profits up for the company; exceeding sales targets by £90,000 and effectively turning the firm around.

If you are interested please Contact Us at:Enactus Warwick Consultingenactuswarwickconsulting@gmail.com; 0795 037 0824

DATA COLLECTION

�20

We conducted two surveys and numerous interviews to gain both quantitative and qualitative data about the Leamington business environment and the views of various stakeholders, including independent businesses, students and academics from the University of Warwick.

The main business survey was first conducted online (Google Forms) starting in early December. Businesses were invited via email by the Leamington BID. Due to the inappropriate timing (Christmas period), we received an inadequate number of responses so we decided to create a paper version of the survey, handing it out to to businesses in person. We received 43 responses, out of which one was identified as being from a high-street chain and was not included in the presented data. In total, 42 independent business survey responses were analysed.

Potential limitations include response rate, sample of businesses and formation of questions. We tried to address these problems by consulting with academics from the University of Warwick. The response rate was around 10% of all Leamington BID members which we think is a reasonable sample that covers wide range of industries, revenue groups and locations. We have tried to contact as many businesses as possible and never excluded an independent business from our data.

Our second source of data was the student survey conducted online (Google Forms). We received 38 responses from University of Warwick students. While this represents only a small fraction of all students, we received a balanced mix of responses from students in different years and locations. We believe this sample is representative of the opinions of University of Warwick students.

Lastly, we conducted many interviews with business owners and other stakeholders in order to help us gain understanding of the Leamington high street. These were usually carried out by one or two team members, with prepared sets of open questions that were discussed with the whole team prior to the interview.

We are well aware of the limitations of the methods we chose (surveys and interviews) and for the next year, we are planning multiple changes. We want to continue with surveys, however making them more specific and delving deeper into past events and future intentions. We are planning to introduce more interviews to ask about opinions, context and gain even deeper understanding. The biggest change will be the introduction of focus groups with students to give more relevant insights on students needs and desires and how these are reflected in Leamington.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

�21

Student Languaging / Tailoring Tailoring your business to students is not just about discounts. Think how you can tailor your products and services to the students and communicate it in their language.

For example, PureGym provides student membership of £100 for a term time instead of a three month membership paid at £42.50 per month. Similarly, consider the offering of a ''Hangover'' smoothie cure - a clearly well thought through product for students.

Customer Experience Think about why someone would want to repeatedly come to your shop; instead of shopping online. Hosting events and incorporating a truly charismatic experience has worked for the successful businesses of the Leamington high street.

Student Skills Not enough time to do social media? Is it hard to wrap your head around it? Why not talk to some of the students that regularly come to your business about how they can help you and what they think?

Consider 'employing' a student by paying with product or service rather than cash; in exchange of management of social media.

Social Media Automation

Social Media is important, but time consuming. Did you know you can programme social media posts to go out automatically? For example Hootsuite, enables you to automate messages on social media and track user engagement and make sense of the data!

The High Street is a System

Remember, that the sum of the parts of the high street is less than the whole. If you have one successful business on the high street; the others benefit from its success. Cooperation is key and underpins the future success of Leamington's high street.

�22

�23

�24