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Most of us love a story with a happy end if good triumphs over bad, personalities overcome twists and villains and turns keep us on our feet. British Home Stores, or BHS’s story, is among those stories.
The British brand succumbed to the struggle of digital and physical retailing this season and gave up the ghost. With consumers, product lines that were confused and exhausted stores, it lost itself along the way somewhere. In 2015 it endured the indignity of being marketed for #1, this year and most of stores closed by the end of August. It was a story that is depressing — the end of an age for a stalwart of the high street, a presence as stores came and went.
Now it has risen, phoenix-like, from the ash. Its engaging, elegant website is chock full of top end homeware retailers since it emerges as The British Home Store and shakes off its naysayers, a butterfly from a chrysalis, its clean, slick brand transformation complete.
The clicks and mortar version just didn’t work. Shifting its attention to ecommerce from physical retailing is a intelligent choice. The ecommerce masterminds of the store have listened to recommendations from retail guru Mary Portas to focus purely on what they do providing a simple, contemporary collection of homewares and well-priced light. Gone are the wheel-shaped crisps (I understand I ate them) along with also the glitzy coasters. It is goodbye to the ‘pile it high’ cheap china and the candles.
The British Home Store intends to deliver its new product line with a fantastic selection of shipping options including next-day shipping, free delivery and courier delivery. The site is slick, its presence powerful. If they pack that with a responsive, omnichannel customer experience with the customer in its centre, they are — I trust — on a winner, and this is one of the most creative and successful brand transformations the UK’s retail industry has ever seen.
To succeed in its own transformation, a new needs to incorporate its legacy in addition to its future, remaining true to its origins but adopting change. It should make the intricate simple and concentrate its strategy. Without losing its own direction it has to breathe new life into its identity. It needs to know — really know — prospects and its clients through accurate accurate and efficient data management. And it delight and has to excite, inspire its audiences — influencers, employees and clients.
For a brand, the trick to longevity is adaptability. It is about being able to continuously reinvent itself to remain relevant. And it’s about being brave and pioneering — being an agent of change. Believe Madonna, Take That, Kylie Minogue, David Beckham: these celebrities span years of popular culture by participating with audiences, creating their own brands using electronic reach and reinventing themselves.
Whilst I do not think I’ve ever before mentioned David Beckham and BHS at precisely the exact same paragraph — and likely never will — there is no doubt the BHS, such as Beckham, is attracting its lovers on its own travel, whilst remaining important to its next generation of supporters. I wish them every success.
