The new Sports Direct boss has opened the old debate of high street versus online shopping as he says shops aren’t ‘dead’.
During the pandemic high streets across the world closed down and people had to rely on online shopping for just about everything they couldn’t get in a supermarket. Some companies, like Topshop and Debenhams, even saw their demise and their shops are left empty.
Ten new high street shops
However, despite all this the new Sports Direct owner, Michael Murray, says he plans to open ten new flagships stores after taking over from Mike Ashley – his future father-in-law – as chief executive of Frasers Group, the shop’s parent company.
At the age of 32, Murray has become one of the youngest chief executives among FTSE 250 companies after a meteoric rise to the top of one of the UK’s biggest retailers. Ahead of opening the new Birmingham Sports Direct store, the young business owner said he believed Britain’s High Streets were not ‘dead’ and instead insisted they would be ‘different’
He told the BBC: ‘I believe if you give people a reason to come and shop, they will shop. They’ve just not had a reason for the past few years.’
High Street Vs Online Shopping
According to Retail Economics statistics online retail sales in the UK have more than tripled in the last ten years as the UK ecommerce market today is 324% bigger than it was ten years ago.
Due to the pandemic the online market market grew 46.5%, in 2020, – but only 20.5% in 2021. In 2022, the growth rate is expected to slow down further. Still, forecasts estimate that sales will reach £140.1 billion this year.
And Office for National Statistics data showed in January 2022, 25.3% of retail sales were done online – this is the lowest since March 2020. This suggests since the world has opened back up and people navigate a a post-COVID life people are more eager to return to the high street.
With this in mind Murray might just be on to something.