Highstreet retailers are under severe pressure to become more cost-efficient – the latest casualty of this being 400 Primark store managers.

Despite a Christmas boom, Primark highlighted that their city centre stores have been slow to recover from the pandemic. But are these job losses unnecessary?

Andre Hordagoda, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Go Instore, says that better use of customer data could help Highstreet retailers work smarter, not harder – optimising their opening times, staff scheduling and stock buying.

“Better harnessing of customer data would mean bricks and mortar retailers are no longer shooting in the dark, giving customers exactly what they want, where and when they want it.

For example, data analysis can inform a store’s optimal opening times. If your analytics identifies an evening spike in traffic in your city centre stores, it can then recommend which days these shops should stay open late or have staff available exclusively for video shopping. Or, to a greater degree, whether some of your store space could be put to better use altogether by adopting a dark store model.

Dark stores are traditional shops converted into full-time ‘click and collect’ services, or 24/7 fulfilment centres for online sales. While they might look like regular stores from the outside, with aisles of products and groups of shop assistants, these outlets aren’t open for visitors, allowing more space for storing goods and processing orders. This benefits both parties – protecting and creating jobs, whilst opening new sales and savings opportunities for retailers.”