It would seem that most consumers feel that the high street has changed for ever and it will not return to what it was pre-Covid-19. In an online magazine, dated 23 January 2020, there was the headline, ‘With so many shops closing, will the UK high street ever recover?’ If you can remember back that far, you probably felt a little buzz. After all, it was good news for email marketing.

There were suggestions during the summer last year that post Covid-19, the high street would rebound with a flourish, and probably reinvent itself as a haven for those who wished to buy spontaneously. Many commentators feel that such a reinvention is now highly unlikely. The main reason given is that consumers have moved to the convenience of online shopping, and businesses have changed their methods in order to cope with purchasers’ concerns and problems. That’s not to mention the closure of some major high street retailers. There’s no going back.

This is a massive positive for email marketing. If, that is, it is true.

It would appear that for many, a feature of lockdowns, partial or otherwise, is that spontaneous purchasing seems to have died, along with the high street, as online shopping becomes a task rather than a pastime. Hence money in our pockets, or at least in our banks. For email marketing, however, this lack of spontaneity might well hit our completions.

Your marketing emails, as well as your websites, might well benefit from replicating the high street experience that many of us enjoyed. In other words, presenting customers with something they had no intention of buying. Shop windows were there for a purpose. Displays would feature one particular type of product, but others would be included also in order to generate the thought of, ‘That looks nice.’ We’ve all been there.

There’s a tanning salon I pass on my walk to the high street where there is a picture of a man and a woman sunning themselves on a beach. You might think they are advertising for their competitors. It seems that many people go to such a salon pre-holiday, something which the company is well aware of, as they have display adverts for holidays, with a note to say they have a code for a discount that is available to anyone who comes in shop.

This procedure could be useful for our marketing emails and websites. Many fashion magazine adverts include, for instance, and expensive dress together with a handbag at an equally eye watering price. It is designed to tempt. If you can generate the shop window experience for the subscribers to your email marketing lists, then there’s an increase in the chances of them making a spontaneous purchase. 

We can’t offer the joys of a coffee shop, but we can, to a certain extent, replicate the opportunity to wander; to feel the urge to buy, for no particular reason. The high street as it used to be is probably dead. Why not reinvent it to an extent? Give back spontaneity.