Beware of new kids on block
YOU could not find a more cautious high street retailer than the John Lewis Partnership. But when all 64,000 permanent members of staff are partners in the business it cannot afford to be anything else.
All its staff has a say in how the business is run. To an outsider the Partnership is democracy gone mad with a seemingly complex system of councils meeting regularly to quiz the leaders on the direction of the business.
News, therefore, that John Lewis is joining the likes of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda in trying to crack into the travel industry should be taken seriously.
John Lewis will have watched closely how its high street rivals have tried to sell travel and entered the market with what they consider is a fail-safe option.
Like Tesco, they see a white-label deal with a leading online partner as the best route to market. But as well as Expedia, John Lewis will also involve the expertise of Cox and Kings, a tour operator that fits hand-in-glove with the profile of its customers.
This is the key reason why so many high street, and grocery players in particular, are targeting the travel sector. For many, travel is the final piece in the jigsaw in giving them access to customer profiling information that will enable them to target their product range more effectively.
Tesco’s Clubcard, for example, has been the primary factor in it going from being the third biggest grocer in the country in 1996, to our biggest by a country mile 10 years later.
Knowing where we go on holiday, the type of holiday we go on and how many times a year we go away is an enormous advantage when planning what ranges and products a high street retailer stocks.
Doing it with an online expert is a great way of making money at low risk. John Lewis’s sales slogan is “never knowingly undersold”, and when it comes to retail strategy it is also “never knowingly under-prepared”.