On Christmas day M&S, Dixons and Argos cut their prices and the boys with their toys were watching and waiting eagerly to snap up the bargains. Comet predicted 100,000 internet sales for electrical goods alone.

But this is where the dilemma lies for fashion. It’s easy to buy the latest cut price CD, ipod and lots of other gadgets and electrical items online but its not so straight forward for the purchase of ladies fashions.

Woman are touchy feely! They like to handle the cloth, put the colour next to their skin tone and hair colours and, most importantly, they want to look good and feel good in it. The garment has to fit right.

Women are concerned over the quality of an item too, especially the higher up it goes on the price scale. If premium designer prices are being paid then the garment has to be made well and last. Women need that quality assurance and normally they want to know exactly who they are dealing with. 

So with these comments in mind will the retail outlet ever really be under threat?

Women out number men 70% to 30% in shopping centres so it certainly will take time to reverse the shopping frenzy for women. However, there could be changes on the facia of the high street.

Women are tiring of the same old lines and colours that dominate the high street. Conglomerates run the high street with centralised design departments. Out pops capsule collections from a set of designers that are then tweaked and amended to offer variations of newness of a similar design theme to the other brands that are owned by the conglomerate. Take the Philip Green empire and just look how many retailers are under this group; Miss Selfridge, Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Evans; Wallis; BHS et al.

Women aren’t stupid and when they see the wonders of Primark offering similar designs at a fraction of the normal retail cost then of course the masses will start to shop there. The middle ground retailers are losing their foothold. What can they offer now that design has been successfully introduced into the budget market?

Could it be those magic words of service and exclusivity? Will there be an emergence of the old fashion way of shopping where by the small speciality shop will make a comeback? I personally think so.

Imagine that you want to go out somewhere special. You won’t go on line and order something that’s potentially a pig in a poke (great expression that!) and you don’t want to look like everyone else on the high street. So here’s an alternative perspective

You could pop into that state of the art boutique “Xclusive for You” (XforU) that has body scanning available. It’s also has a range of internationally sourced fabrics to select from and if you take that favourite little black dress number that fits like a glove XforU can run of a pattern that fits perfectly. The resulting unique dress will be a one off, in your colour, perfect fit and besides you just love the way Mrs Bobbin looks after you! She always makes that special cappuccino just the way you like it. Ok you may pay a bit more but it’s worth it!

Just imagine then the next step. You are now totally happy with the garment and service provided by Mrs Bobbin so now you are happy to buy on line whenever it’s convenient for you. Mrs Bobbin keeps a separate exclusive file just for you and you can merrily select the pattern you want from your shade card of colours. What could be easier!

Online shopping is growing 130 times faster then high street sales according to Interactive media in Retail Group with 26,000 online shops selling five millions products.

So is the scenario of Mrs Bobbin leading to internet shopping painted above a potential reality? Time will tell but one things for sure touchy feely needs to exist in the short term but I can see   “squeal and click” approaching rapidly.

Jenny Holloway

Industry Advisor