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6 ways social ventures can compete on the high street
6 ways social ventures can compete on the high street
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
6 ways social ventures can compete on the high street
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
Social enterprises are increasing in number and in size. More than half reported growth in turnover in 2015 according to Social Enterprise UK’s State of Social Enterprise report. A stumbling block for many is being able to compete with the scale and budgets of big business. We spoke to Big Venture Challenge 2016 winner hiSbe, a Brighton-based ethical supermarket, about their success in a market dominated by big brands. For hiSbe the aim is to charge fair prices for well-sourced food, pay suppliers fair prices and pay staff fair wages, creating a better food industry for all parties. Read more of hiSbe’s inspiring story here.
‘The values drive everything we do’, according to hiSbe co-founder Ruth Anslow, ‘Putting the happiness of staff, customers and suppliers before profits is something we take very seriously’ Your social impact and values can be a powerful tool. It can attract consumers who want to know that the money they spend on products or services has an added social benefit. This is true across sectors with ethical spending by consumers reaching £38billion in 2015, up 8% on 2014 figures, according to the Ethical Consumer Markets Report. hiSbe established eight themes that they cared about and put these at the heart of their supply chain. So has the extra effort of a principled approach been worth it? ‘Most customers get, or care about, at least one of the eight themes…And most of the customers that come into our shop aren’t die hard ethical crusaders, they’re just normal people trying to make good, healthy, ethical food choices’, explains Ruth. Take a look at the UnLtd toolkit for social entrepreneurs for more information on setting your values.
You’re a social entrepreneur so solving problems is what you are good at. Large businesses increasingly find themselves with consumers that no longer fully trust their brands – think large multinationals on issues around tax and the horsemeat scandal in the UK in 2013. As a socially-conscious entrepreneur your products or services can offer something unique in the market. ‘We’re very different to a regular high street supermarket: we make a fair profit; we pay and charge what’s fair for good food; we support the local economy, keeping at least half of the money people spend in Sussex; and we stand up for a responsible food industry, working with suppliers who are into ethical and sustainable sourcing’, explains hiSbe co-founder Ruth. In recognising that big supermarkets aren’t treating suppliers fairly and that smaller ethical food stores are overcharging, hiSbe is solving a problem and building a trusted customer base that values low-cost, ethically sourced products.
Running a social venture is time-consuming. To begin with you are spending your days on the shop floor or on the phone talking to clients, and your nights working on a social impact report to lock in your social mission. In order to scale and grow your social venture to be able to compete on a local level with national brands, you may need time to develop new strategies and plans. The Big Venture Challenge programme delivered by UnLtd is about helping social ventures to develop plans so they are ready operationally to find investment and compete at scale. For hiSbe this meant taking a step back from the day-to-day running of the shop. Ruth, along with fellow co-founders Amy and Jack, had to reassess what their role in the business was in order to scale and grow its social impact. ‘Because we had ambitions to grow, we had to get ourselves out of the shop.’
Your branding needs to rival that of your competitors. Whether you are competing with national providers for local government contracts, or selling products or services to fund a social cause, if you don’t look professional you run the risk of losing business. If you haven’t already developed a marketing strategy, take a look at this guide to developing your marketing strategy and marketing plan.
Pride yourself on offering great customer service to encourage customers to return, spend more with your business and ultimately allow you to increase your social impact. Large corporations’ interactions with customers are often based on reaching a wide target audience. Smaller businesses can engage with customers on a personal level – this can be as simple as getting to know the people buying your products or services.
While large corporations may be able to make significant savings through economies of scale on things like payroll, logistics and payment solutions, their size also makes it more difficult to respond to the unique requirements of customers and suppliers. Making personal connections with potential customers and understanding the needs of your suppliers can make your venture a much more attractive prospect. Reaching out to potential customers was important for hiSbe. They began life as a website with a blog and social media channels, ‘The whole point of that was to join up and be associated with other people in that world and to create a fan base that would ultimately become our customers…we turned that into a group of thousands of people who put money into a crowd funding campaign and who helped us in a million ways to set up our store. So that the day we opened our doors we had thousands of customers.’ hiSbe also focus on building a local network of suppliers, employees, customers and service providers.
To find out more about the rest of the 2016 Big Venture Challenge winners click the button below BVC 2016 Winners