How to increase dwell time and spend in your Town Centre Market Place
Think of your towns local market and you may imagine an uninspired grouping of traders selling products ranging from fruit & veg to mops & buckets. Talk to these traders and they will tell you stories of their once thriving Market Place losing business to soulless out of town Retail Parks or big Supermarket chains. They cannot give up on their only source of income but are also beaten by a lack of vision on how to draw people back to the Market Place. This is where the story ends for a lot of Towns across the UK. It doesn’t need to be this way. There is now a new wave of Market Places that offer innovative, creative settings coming through. These Markets are leading the way in a resurgence in successful and sustainable Town Centres. They offer opportunity to independent traders as well as breathing life into your once thriving community hub and we love them!
Location Management is Key
New Markets are focused on food, drink and entertainment, bringing people to the area to enjoy what’s on offer throughout the day, evening and weekend. This increases dwell time in Town Centres and attracts visitors who are exploring the Market Place and surrounding businesses driving revenue generation. The beauty of the New Market Place is that the space works for the community. It offers a space for local & independent traders as well as a social hub for the wider audience. Your Town can showcase the best talent the region has to offer in food, hospitality, art, music and culture.
Sounds great? Of course it does! How do you put it into practice? There are a number of space management agencies in the UK that offer to commercialise your space and drive investment. What usually happens however is they place promoters in your town that would have booked the space without their input. This leaves the town feeling that big corporates are parachuting in, taking the space to sell and jumping out again whilst offering nothing to the Towns actual growth. They must have experience at curating popular social spaces for the local community by sourcing a mix of independent street food, craft ales, live music and entertainment. This includes setting up an events diary that offers community inclusion such as Family Days, Festivals and Urban Farms alongside traditional holidays such as Easter, Halloween and Christmas. Mixing up the Market Days to add variety such as Artisan, Foodie, Farmers and Teenage Markets really creates a buzz in the Town and generates real interest in what is coming next. Please feel free to contact me if you want any advice. We are always happy to help.
Making Your Town Centre Vibrant Again
Success stories such as the market areas in Altrincham and Stockport have proven there is a real demand from local people to enjoy independent & artisan markets with family & friends in towns across the UK. These are truly modern markets where people of all ages can come together to eat, drink, socialise and shop. All of this whilst enjoying a wide range of arts, music and culture.
A successful market in your Town has the potential to become a vibrant social hub, bringing thousands of people back into the Town Centre and driving independent investment in unoccupied premises in the surrounding streets.
Place Experts work with Town Centres to be the best they can be for their community and to their vision or not at all. Feel free to call me for a chat if you think we may be able to advise you on how best to grow your market place and town centre spaces.
