I’ve spent most of my work life in retail and I’m not embarrassed to describe myself as a shopkeeper. I love shopping, visiting stores and admire how retailers practice their art.

I’ve spent most of my work life in retail and I’m not embarrassed to describe myself as a shopkeeper. I love shopping, visiting stores and admire how retailers practice their art.

We have some fantastic businesses on the British high street that have taken retailing to the next level. Here are just two examples from a long list: Pret a Manger sells sandwiches, but what a great experience it offers from the moment you step into the store - the messaging, the fonts, the colours, the brand ethics, the staff, and let’s not forget the great food. Everything about Pret is well thought out and is a work of art.

Hollister is a store that seems to break every rule. It doesn’t have its name outside the store, and when you get inside it’s dark (you keep wanting to tell the staff to turn the lights up).

But it’s hip and cool. It even has its own smell, because every few minutes a machine sprays perfume, which is designed to trigger memories of sunny days and beaches, around the store. And it all works. It’s busy and people come back to browse over and over again.

Then, on the flip side, we’ve got lots of struggling retailers and they are coming up with excuses as to why they are not doing well, and after all we are in a recession.

One of the most common excuses from retailers is that “the internet is hurting us”. This is true to some extent but one of the biggest lessons that we learnt from the dot com boom was that physical stores are actually wonderful things.

Even with the internet, people still love to shop and if you don’t make your store a great experience then your customers will go somewhere else. It’s as simple as that.

Retailing is all about empathy, putting yourself in the customers’ shoes and asking yourself the questions “what do my customers want?” and “if I was the customer what would I want?”

I believe we’ve ended up with a lot of people working in the industry who have simply lost the art of retailing, and that’s resulted in a divide between good retailers and bad.

Empathy is about walking around and getting inspiration from everywhere, including the internet, about what motivates people and what makes them tick.

It’s about getting out from behind that desk and walking around successful retailers, learning lessons and applying them to your own business.

It’s about talking to staff and customers.

It might be a shock but some of those mythical people from head office that are responsible for what happens in shops should go to the actual stores to talk and listen to the people who work and buy in them.

It’s amazing what real people might tell you. Open your eyes and ears and give it a go today. You shouldn’t be embarrassed to be a shopkeeper.

  • Ajaz Ahmed, founder of Freeserve