Independent food retailers face many challenges, not least their lack of scale, low margins and high costs. Tapping into local demand and differentiating from the competition is harder to do in food & grocery. Those retailers that have managed to do this, such as Boots, were already well established, have some scale and have built on their heritage; for newcomers or single independents it is much harder.

Joining forces with other independents and becoming part of a buying group is one solution, and using that power to develop an offer that fulfils what consumers want now. Food-to-go is one such solution, e.g. resisting the onslaught of costly coffee chains with in-store coffee machines, basic pastries and other baked goods, or providing hot and cold food-to-go counters to cater for breakfast, lunch and evening meal solutions.

Amy Nelson-Bennett, Group Marketing Director,  tells us how Molton Brown has seen the value in targeting a male audience.

‘At Molton Brown, we believe that marketing to men is a smart way of gaining incremental sales in today’s market and it’s something we’re well-placed to take advantage of. Traditionally we have a strong male audience – we offer an easy gifting option to men, all they have to do is remember not to lose it!

We’re re-launching our men’s range later this year and, given that we’re doing that in a recession, it’s a godsend that it’s to a male audience. Men are still moving from mass market to prestige so, while women are more nervous about their spending, expenditure by men is growing.

The advice to ‘adapt existing personal care products to the (male) target market and emphasise male attributes to encourage take-up’ should be taken with care, though. That’s what the big women’s skincare brands have been doing, selling their new men’s ranges in exactly the same way as they sell to women – same sort of displays, similar packaging etc. But our research has shown that men react to quite different cues…they don’t want to browse or test the product. They want good in-store navigation to get them to the right area, very clear messaging at shelf as to what problem the product will solve and simple instructions on how to use it.

Packaging is far less important – the product needs to looks masculine and be straight-forward about what it is, no more complicated that that.  The function that the product performs has to be the hero message, the efficacy of the ingredients or the proven benefits are very much secondary to men.

There’s another major difference in selling skincare to men too…they won’t ask for advice. So well in advance of our re-launch we’ll be promoting the range on our website, offering grooming tips and answers to questions men wouldn’t dream of asking in a store.

So yes, we are changing our marketing strategy to attract more men…for us it’s absolutely the way to go.’

The only growth that retailers can depend on these days appears to be online. Without this channel UK retail sales would be dropping by over £3.5bn in 2009 rather than the £1.7bn decline Verdict is currently forecasting. Furthermore, with online sales still producing double-digit growth for the majority of sectors and retailers, this is where businesses are focusing their attention.  Indeed about the only bright spot in Marks & Spencer’s results last week was the 34% increase in sales from its website and one of the main aims of its latest initiative is to become a fully functioning multichannel retailer.

However, even though this channel is outperforming significantly, it will still only account for 10% of total retail expenditure by 2013 (£30.9bn) and nearly half of this will be via two sectors: food and grocery; and electricals. Marks & Spencer is hoping for a £500m online business by 2011 – but this would still only account for around 5% of its business; not a significant amount.

Though websites can increase footfall to physical stores as shoppers first search online, then buy or collect from stores, providing retailers with the opportunity to cross sell, there is evidence that they are detracting from store-based sales. When space is still a major cost for retailers can they afford to cannibalise their own sales? Primark has existed very well without a transactional website and as a low-price, high-volume retailer cannot afford to dilute the sales of its stores with an online channel.

When retailers look at the performance of the likes of N Brown or ASOS they must wonder if the future is all online. So what is the answer? Invest heavily in your website or not? Go completely online and shut all stores? Or shut some stores and by doing so cut operating costs? Perhaps e-commerce is not the Holy Grail it seemed for retailers after all.