DEBATE: Boots is shutting 200 stores in the next 18 months – will this be enough to ensure its survival?
Boots is shutting 200 stores in the next 18 months – will this be enough to ensure its survival?
Rebecca Crook, chief growth officer at digital product agency Somo, says YES.
Some 800m people a year walk through the doors of Boots, yet we know that being a heritage brand is not enough for today’s demanding customer. Overlay that with the fact that the health and beauty market has been squeezed for a number of years from new entrants, and it comes as no surprise that the chain is closing stores.
But Boots has recognised the need for change, and placed innovation within stores at the heart of its new strategy. Part of that is closing outlets, which will help it cut costs, but it is also now starting to reinvent its retail spaces into more creative environments for shoppers, and crucially connecting this with the online shopping experience.
The new Covent Garden store is a great example of Boots embracing technology by replacing traditional beauty counters with trending zones, discovery areas, and a YouTube studio.
With this kind of offering and its new environmental credentials, including phasing out single-use plastic bags and offering taps for water bottle refilling, combined with a sleeker business operation, I believe that the future looks bright for Boots.
Malcolm Devoy, chief strategy officer EMEA at global media network PHD, says NO.
It’s a familiar story: a retail brand is in trouble with a number of stores that are struggling, which eventually concludes in the doors closing for a final time. A mourning of a once-loved institution erupts, and subsequently dissipates.
There are two main routes for brands in trouble. One: find efficiencies and prolong the journey. Two: take on the fight. Boots has predictably gone for the former. This is unlikely to be enough.
Boots currently faces the same issue as many high street stores – people love the brand and its products, but their lives won’t stop if it disappears. As Boots has stood still, around it we have seen an explosion of brands created to challenge the status quo and to give consumers what they are looking for.
Boots appears to have lost its appetite for the fight. It needs to rekindle its challenger spirit and stand against those brands. Be noisy, be opinionated.
Boots cannot simply close its way out of trouble.
Main image credit: Getty