The post-COVID UK high street: a case study of the unique use of experiential marketing by charity shops

Whittingham, Bryony and Kealy-Morris, Elizabeth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2843-1916 (2025) The post-COVID UK high street: a case study of the unique use of experiential marketing by charity shops. Fashion, Style and Popular Culture, 13 (1/2). ISSN 2050-0726 (In Press)

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Abstract

This article discusses how consumers’ shopping habits have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and examines how these changes have affected the UK’s local commercial centers. The focus of the article is the shifts in commercial consumption during the pandemic and the resultant rise in importance of the charity shop on UK’s local commercial areas, known in the vernacular as ‘the high street’ (ONS 2020). The application of experiential marketing by the charity sector via their retail sites is examined to understand their elevation of importance during the pandemic. Research undertaken evidence that these shops provided needed experiences for their customers during a public health crisis and this article fills a significant gap in scholarship conducted exploring the use of experiential marketing within the charity sector. Primary research was gathered through online and in-person surveys and analyzed using thematic analysis to understand underlying opinions about charity shops and their place on the Withington high street, an urban residential community in the city of Manchester in the northwest of England. The results of this study indicate that the ways in which charity shops use experiential marketing could be extended to the larger retail environment as a method to gain higher footfall within local commercial retail areas which benefits greater engagement with the public areas within communities.