From Online-Only Back to the High Street

For a while, the story around retail felt fairly straightforward.

Online was the future. Physical stores were expensive. And if a brand could reach customers digitally, why bother with shops at all?

Except retail has never really been that simple.

This month, Karen Millen returned to physical retail seven years after closing its store estate and moving online-only.

But it hasn't suddenly gone back to opening dozens of permanent shops.

Instead, the return is beginning through selected concessions.

And that's the bit I find interesting.

Physical retail doesn't have to be all or nothing

Opening a physical space doesn't have to mean committing to a huge store estate, signing long leases and hoping customers turn up.

There's a lot that can happen in between online-only and a permanent shop.

A pop-up can help a brand test whether its online audience translates into real-world customers.

A concession can put products in front of an established audience without the overhead of running a standalone store.

A temporary unit can test a new town or city.

A market, kiosk or activation can introduce a brand to customers who might never have found it online.

Sometimes a few weeks in the right space can answer questions that months of planning can't.

The shop can do more than sell

For an online business, physical retail doesn't need to replace ecommerce.

It can add something ecommerce simply can't.

Customers can touch products, try things on, ask questions and discover things they might never have searched for online.

Brands can meet the people buying from them.

And those conversations can reveal a huge amount about products, pricing, merchandising and customer behaviour.

The physical space becomes part shop, part marketing campaign, part research exercise and part customer experience.

Test first. Learn. Then decide.

This is one of the things I like most about temporary retail.

It gives businesses permission not to know all the answers yet.

Before taking on a permanent unit, you can test:

The location

Does your customer actually shop there?

The format

Do you need a full shop, a kiosk, a concession, a market stall or something completely different?

The product mix

What changes when customers can physically see, touch or try the product?

The operation

What do staffing, stock, insurance, fit-out, deliveries and day-to-day management actually involve?

The response

Do people stop? Do they engage? Do they buy? And, just as importantly, what do they tell you?

Then you have real information to help decide what comes next.

And there's plenty happening behind the shopfront

Finding the space is only one part of getting a physical project open.

There's usually a fair bit happening behind the scenes too.

Approaching landlords and venues. Putting together brand information and proposals. Reviewing licences and documentation. Working through insurance, risk assessments and health & safety requirements. Planning access, power, storage, staffing, installation and launch.

That's why I don't really see temporary retail as simply finding an empty shop.

It's about finding the right opportunity, in the right place, for the right business — and then making the practical side work too.

Maybe the future isn't online or offline

Karen Millen is only one example, but its return to physical retail is a useful reminder that brands don't necessarily have to choose between digital and physical.

A digital-first brand can still benefit from meeting customers in real life.

A small business can test the high street without immediately becoming a permanent high-street retailer.

And a landlord can give a new operator an opportunity without committing straight away to a long-term letting.

The interesting bit is often somewhere in between.

And sometimes, that's exactly where a pop-up, temporary space or carefully chosen concession earns its keep.

Thinking about testing your brand in the real world, finding the right space or working out everything that needs to happen behind the scenes? Lo Kehoe Studio helps brands find the right spaces, and spaces find the right brands, with the commercial, operational and practical support to make it happen.