Former GAME Executive Claims UK Retailers Have "Got It Wrong"

Ian Shepherd, who was the chief executive of UK retailer GAME until it entered administration, has been highly critical of UK retailers in his blog, Moving Tribes.

"I'll go out on a limb and assert that there is no retailer in the UK properly managing its customer base, including the ones I've worked in," he wrote. "That's because doing so means changing almost everything about the way the operation works."

"If you run a business which depends on regular subscribers, like a mobile network, there is a simple equation which dominates your life: The number of customers you have (Number), how long they stay with you (Loyalty), and how much money you make from them each month (Spend)"

"Walk down your high street, and 9 out of 10 of the retailers you pass would not even know what those three key numbers are today, let alone how to make them go up. Ask a retailer how many customers it has, and it will start talking about "footfall", but that isn't the same thing at all. Footfall measures the number of anonymous people who have walked into your stores, not how many actual customers you have."

It's nice to know that these people are thinking of me as part of an equation. It makes me feel so valued. In all seriousness, with more and more people moving online to shop, I think two of the greatest assets high street retail can capitalise on are one-on-one customer service and the atmosphere of the store itself. GAME did well on the former (in my experience, anyway), but with its bins of tacky plushies, prominent displays of dilapidated second hand games, and irritating radio channel, it was never somewhere I really enjoyed hanging around.

My local GAME store has closed down and, to be honest, I don't miss it all that much. Maybe Shepherd's advice would have saved it, but they would still have had to win me back as a "loyal" customer.