Independent shops working to entice new customers

Hannah Huntly, one of the founders of Applaud Coffee in Ipswich, says it focuses on offering good customer service

Independent shop owners said they were offering customers bespoke experiences and events to tackle a reported plummeting footfall.

A report last week showed the amount of people visiting Ipswich this year was 679,077 - down from 949,995 visitors last year.

However, leader of Ipswich Borough Council Neil MacDonald disputed the figures and said the drop had been down to an inaccurate way the data was collected.

Three independent shop workers said they had seen changes in customers' habits but were working to tackle this.

'Retail wonderland'

Matthew Long said he offered a bespoke service customers that national chains may not be able to offer

Matthew Long, 56, has been working in Ipswich since he was 14 and is the owner of Rocket Music in St Nicholas Street.

He said footfall in the 1980s was "incredible" with Saturdays often feeling like Christmas Eve with how busy they could be.

"Back then you had incredible national chains in the town, you had boutique independents everywhere, the street was like a retail wonderland," he said.

Mr Long said he believed his shop had survived due to offering a bespoke service.

"Some people come in the shop who don't even play guitar and say, 'Can I just have a look?'," he said.

"Guitars are bright and shiny things... that inspires to learn to play or start to play."

'Depressive wave'

Kelly Will said she wanted to offer workshops in the future at her gallery to attract customers

Kelly Will, 34, runs Frame Workshop and Gallery on St Nicholas Street.

"I've watched the ebbs and flows of the way business is in town," she said.

"At the moment we're in a dip and there's a depressive wave over Ipswich right now."

However she believed this wave was a feature in all towns and was a good thing as it meant business could "only go up".

"[Customers] need to come in for an experience - they need to know that they're going to have a nice time," she added.

Ms Will, along with other businesses on her street, had come up with an idea to offer an indoor market during upcoming late night shopping dates.

"If this could become an annual event and we're known for it it's going to entice people into the town to shop," she said.

'Nice environment'

Ms Huntly said her coffee shop had seen an increase in customers

Hannah Huntly, 38, is one of the founders of Applaud Coffee that has been running for 11 years on St Peter's Street.

She said the business focused on offering high quality products as well as "a nice environment" which helped retain customers.

"We've not noticed a downturn in footfall at all - this year if anything we've noticed the opposite," she said.

"We've got more customers that are coming to us and they are also becoming more regular.

"If people are choosing to spend their money with you it is really important that they enjoy what they're getting.

"How they feel when they're in a place is really important."

'Filling up'

Councillor Neil MacDonald said the council would be looking at a new way of collecting footfall data

A spokesperson for the council said it was working to "thoroughly interrogate" the recent footfall figures which were collected before Ipswich Town Football Club's promotion to the Premier League.

Mr MacDonald, who disputed the figures, confirmed a new way of collecting data was being implemented, which picked up anonymous signals from mobile phones as a more accurate way to track footfall, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"There are a lot of new shops which have opened in town in the last year, it’s filling up, there are also more restaurants coming in, I don’t see why footfall would have gone down by such a big number," he added.

"There are people going up and down [the town centre], the stats don’t seem to bear that out."