Fresh from a career with a global cosmetics firm, Charlotte Howe is turning her focus to Jersey’s retail and visitor economy. Emily Moore hears how the Island’s ‘great foundations’ are cause for optimism about growth
YOU do not have to spend more than a couple of minutes in Charlotte Howe’s company to see that she is a woman full of energy, excitement and optimism.
She is also, as soon becomes clear, a woman who is not frightened of a challenge and who is determined to throw all her enthusiasm and passion for the Island into supporting an industry which, she admits, is facing a challenging time.
Having joined the government’s Economy Department six months ago as sector lead for retail and visitor economy, Charlotte’s role is extensive and one of her biggest tasks in 2024 will be producing a new retail strategy for the Island.
This, as she acknowledges, is not a small piece of work but, having “been thrown in at the deep end” on more than one occasion during her 20-year retail career, it is one which she is greatly looking forward to tackling.
Her first retail challenge came when she was still at university and spending a year in Paris while completing her French degree.
“It was the third year of my course and I had the opportunity to work for LVMH, who had just added a new American beauty brand to their portfolio,” she recalled. “At the time, no one in France had heard of Benefit Cosmetics and I was tasked with launching it across the country’s Sephora stores. That was really daunting because I was very young and inexperienced, but it was also tremendously exciting.”
That sense of excitement, coupled with moments of apprehension, remained as Charlotte started work with Lush Cosmetics after graduating from university.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but, thanks to my experience with Benefit, I got a job with Lush, focusing on its sister brand, B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful,” she explained. “While that brand was eventually absorbed into Lush, I stayed with the company for nearly 20 years, carrying out every role from sourcing and buying to becoming managing director and expanding the business into Japan, Austria and across the UK. Again, I was very much thrown into each position, so I just rolled up my sleeves and said ‘you can do this’.”
It was, says Charlotte, a different time for an industry which has evolved significantly over the past two decades.
“When I was launching Benefit and B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful, retail was very much treated as a start-up, with a lot of emerging wellness, health and beauty brands,” she explained. “It was a hard sell to get the names out there but it was also very exciting and you had to engage with consumers in a different way.”
Having stayed with Lush until joining the government in the summer, Charlotte, who moved to the Island with her family five years ago, admits that she is now facing a different set of challenges.
“It is very different,” she smiled. “I loved working at Lush but I was looking for a new challenge and, with my passion for retail, as soon as I saw this position advertised, I was curious.”
And the first question Charlotte had, when she went for an informal conversation to find out more about the expectations that would be placed on the new sector lead was: “How can the government support an entire sector and what are the opportunities for that sector?”
“I wanted to understand whether, with my passion for retail, I could go outside brand level – albeit on a global scale – and look at the industry from a new perspective,” she said. “This job needs me to look at all businesses, all customers and take that all-Islander perspective to understand how the government can help that sector to thrive. And that’s the exciting bit for me, as it’s a case of bringing my skills and experience and applying them in a different way.”
And while it would be easy to focus on the more negative aspects of the town’s retail scene – the drop in footfall since the pandemic and the rise in empty units – Charlotte is adamant that the Island has a “great foundation” from which to create a “stimulating and vibrant retail landscape”.
“We are incredibly lucky to have two stunning, independent department stores in the high street, something which is unheard of in UK towns,” she said. “The buying their teams do is world-class, and they host the most amazing brands. They really worked hard to pivot their business models during Covid to tell the stories of their brands, which are creating additional challenges for department stores by marketing themselves directly to consumers.
“It would be very easy to focus on the empty units, but if you look at the good already in town – and in the out-of-town retail areas – we have a great foundation on which to build. And this has to be the starting point for the retail strategy. We have to appreciate the great things we have and build on these.
“Retail, at its heart, is simple. However, customers are not because their behaviour changes all the time. Technology is a great enabler but it enables customers to change their habits every week. Trying to understand and predict what consumers will do next week, next year or in five years’ time is very difficult. But that’s what the strategy has to look at.
“We have to look at our consumers holistically and not just think about what they are coming to buy but about what is important to them. What stories matter to them? Who do they want to socialise with? What is most important to them about community? As a sector, we need to appreciate each Islander in that holistic way so that we understand what enables them to interact with a particular retail environment.”
And the nature of retail, and the way in which people interact with those environments, is also changing, says Charlotte.
“We used to see retail as being very transactional,” she explained. “But this has shifted. You can see that just by looking at us and at the other customers in Flour today. They haven’t just come here to drink coffee and eat cake. They are gathering with friends, enjoying a conversation, using the facilities. All of a sudden, that simple premise of ‘meeting for a coffee’ has become much richer. When you recognise your consumers’ rich and diverse behaviour and match that with a rich and diverse offering, then you have a successful business.”
As a result, Charlotte argues that the focus on bricks-and-mortar stores needs to shift from one of measuring the size and position of the property to one of focusing on the content for the people coming into that business.
“Flour is a great example of a business that has done that,” she pointed out. “The shop is not in the high street and yet its content delivers, thus creating a place where people want to come.”
In that respect, she adds, retail is about hospitality.
“Hospitality is intrinsic to retail,” she said. “It’s about hospitality in the sense of customer experience and customer engagement, and the experience that customers get in your space is vital to creating a thriving retail landscape.”
But, while acknowledging the many “brilliant” businesses across the Island, Charlotte does admit that Islanders may not feel that retail in the town centre is thriving at the moment.
The vacancy rates in the high street – currently 9.3% – are, she says, the highest the Island has seen, and this impacts on people’s feels and perceptions of the retail offer.
“We know that data are important, and the strategy will be based on data but, with retail, those data translate into a feeling and visual representation experienced by every Islander,” she said. “If you walk down the high street and see three empty units in a row, you start to feel despondent about retail. Now, the reality may be that the unit is being prepared for something exciting to come in but, as a shopper, you don’t feel that.”
Accordingly, this is an area where Charlotte, supported by Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel, is taking immediate action.
“These vacancies give us a massive opportunity to tell a different story and we are working with property agents and entrepreneurs to encourage creativity and to work alongside our government colleagues to excite the high street,” she said. “Even when the units are not fully transformed, we want to create something with which Islanders can engage.
“This is something we have already started doing, working with a landlord to contribute to the public realm in Queen Street. The windows of his stores will be taken over by Sasha Gibb, who is leading the government’s Public Voice: Common Ground project, and will ask Islanders what they want to see in St Helier. This will give us real feedback from real people, which will also help to inform the strategy.
“We also have some wonderful art installations, walking routes and interactive maps on the windows to spark some lovely creativity while the spaces are developed for tenants. Critically, as well as attracting potential entrepreneurs to the sites, this will transform the feeling of a space which is desperate and unattractive into one which is stimulating and vibrant.
Another area on which Charlotte is focused is the markets, which she describes as the “jewel in the crown” of retail in St Helier.
“There is huge potential here to work with other government departments, stakeholders and businesses to revitalise that area of town,” she said. “There are already brilliant businesses in these beautiful buildings and these can be really exciting spaces where people can not only shop but also dwell, socialise and participate in community events.”
And this approach of bringing departments together is, Charlotte adds, central to building a “stronger strategy than we’ve ever had before”.
“As well as working together, we also need to work very closely with the sector to make sure we are delivering what it needs,” she said. “As well as providing data, something which is always called for, the strategy will focus on three key pillars: connection – both in terms of connecting consumers and businesses and connections to town – community and creativity.
“We also know that there are people interested in investing in the Island and we are speaking with a lot of private businesses which are very interested in coming to Jersey because they see the opportunity provided by this captive audience. Whether we are looking at Genuine Jersey members or international retailers, we need to make it as easy as possible for them to come in and establish a presence in the Island.”
Anyone with ideas about the future of retail is invited to email them to Charlotte at c.howe@gov.je.
