Pop-up shops among students' solutions for struggling High Street

Wednesday 11 November 2020

Lack of variety, the ease of online shopping and increased costs are just some of the reasons why students believe footfall on the Town High Street is dropping.

30 pupils from the College of Further Education and the Sixth Form Centre are trying to come up with digital solutions to make St Peter Port retail more attractive to local shoppers as part of the Digital Innovator Programme.

The group of students met for the first time on 3 November to discuss why they feel some people are not spending money in Town shops.

"We're very pleased with how the first event went and the students were all very engaged tackling the real-world problem that many local businesses are facing," said Ben Wratten, Programme Manager at the Digital Greenhouse, which is running the event. 

"This session has already produced some interesting solutions including local loyalty schemes, retail versions of AirBnB [such as pop-up shops] and ways of making retail greener."

Pictured: Footfall in Town has fallen over the years while online shopping has increased. 

"In the next session we'll start to see students' digital innovations come to life and try to help find a fix to this very real issue."

The students are now tasked with developing their ideas into a service or product, and will produce a mock-up of their proposals next month. 

Last year's programme supported more than 150 local students, a number of whom went on to undertake further study or work in the digital sector.

John Davison, Chief Information Officer at First Central Group, which is sponsoring the programme, said this year's sessions had been even more successful.

"It's fantastic to see more students taking part in this year's programme," he said. "The digital and technology industries are growing every year and businesses across the world and locally are constantly on the lookout for ambitious talent who go the extra mile to develop their skills.

"The launch event is the first step for many of these students to learn new digital skills and begin developing key expertise."

Pictured top: The OSA pop-up shop.