5 ways the internet has killed the high-street
If you've taken a moment to look at the high streets recently, you should have noticed that it's not looking great. Shops are disappearing every day and before you know it, our high-street will become nothing more than a row of abandoned buildings. In my opinion, there are clear reasons why this has happened, 5 of them to be exact. So let's begin.
1) We care too much about price.
There's no denying the fact that when it comes to buying a product, price is the main factor we consider. In the current economic climate, we are far more prepared to go out of our way for that negligible saving. This usually causes us to rush home to the internet and buy what we want online. Despite the fact that the product will take a few days to arrive, and there are additional postage costs, we would rather buy online than from a high street. Online retailers have far less to pay in terms of overheads, so cost of production is much lower than high street stores. This means prices will be lower, and our high street just can't compete.
2) The internet has got a lot safer
The saving grace for the high street use to be the fact that consumers were always slightly scared when it came to buying things online. Nobody wanted to enter their credit card details in case of being scammed, and so people would pay a higher price at a normal shop. However, things have changed with secure payment systems in place on almost any online retailer. People have gained confidence massively, and now buying online is actually considered 'the norm'.
3) Poor quality products
Because the internet creates immense competition for high street retailers, they have to find ways of producing their goods for a lower cost. This often means that quality is compromised and slowly but surely competitors have noticed. After all, if you had £20 to spend, you want to get the best value for money, and the very nature of online retailers means that you can do just that, at the expense of local stores.
4) People think they're alone
When it comes to buying online, people think that they are the only ones who have found a great bargain. The thought that everybody else is doing exactly the same thing doesn't really occur to them. When you realise the amount of people that regularly shop online, it's hard to believe even the largest businesses are capable of surviving in the high street, let alone the smallest. It's sort of like film piracy, if one person pirates a film, the industry won't really suffer, but if everybody did it, there would be no industry. The problem is that most people aren't consciously aware that everyone is doing it.
5) Severe lack of entrepreneurship
When a high street store closes down, it's not too long before some aspiring businessman attempts to start his empire. Unfortunately, all that we consumers get is a constant stream of bad ideas, that are in no way sustainable, let alone profitable. The lack of entrepreneurship means that businesses quickly start up, last about as long as there bank loan lets them, and then disappear just as quickly as they arrived.
Although this entire post is about how the internet is killing the high street, I think it's more a case of how we are killing the high-street, and the internet is simply letting us.
So what can we do?
Well, if we want our high-street to survive much longer, we need to radically change our spending habits, and be prepared to pay a slightly higher price in return for sustainability. We also need to help entrepreneurs develop successful ideas that will help the high-street, not hinder it.
Despite my rather pessimistic view, all it not lost yet, and with a change in consumer attitudes and spending, the high-street will return to its former glory.