By Ben Nicholls

For Hillcrest there has always been three legs to our street-level business community: dining, services and retail. They’re all very important because without them we don’t have a balanced palate of services to offer our customers.

Over the last decade, street-level retail in older business districts like Hillcrest has come under a lot of pressure. This includes the rise of discount retailers (including those online and big-box stores in Mission Valley and beyond), rising rental rates in deteriorating buildings, and in Hillcrest (and Uptown), the perceived lack of parking.

All these things make it difficult for some types of retail to compete with places like Mission Valley. Online art-based stores, such as Etsy, even compete with unique products that were once the purview of neighborhood boutique retailers.

How should a retailer compete in this environment? It’s difficult to compete with Walmart on price, the convenience of the Internet is unparalleled and parking is a long-term problem to solve. While there are many things that brick-and-mortar businesses can do to diversify their revenue (such as having an online sales presence), the answer is something that the restaurant industry learnt a long time ago: You must compete on the customer experience.

Small retailers have the ability to engage with their customers in a way that the big-box stores, by definition, can’t. By creating a one-of-a-kind shopping experiences that can’t be replicated anywhere else, small shopping locations can create a competitive edge. Stores should always have knowledgeable and welcoming staff. Though that’s a given, many stores at “the mall” can’t boast even that.

These experiences could be simple or elaborate. Ideas could be simple such as creative window displays (think Hillcrest Ace Hardware) or well-designed lighting (think Cody’s Home + Gift). Ideas could be more creative, such as in-store sampling (think Vom Fass in the HUB).

Other ideas that can be employed could include partnerships between a retail store and a nearby restaurant for a celebratory event during a sale or new product launch. An interactive “play” component with products might be good also. A barber I go to provides a shot of whiskey to his last customers of the day. While not technically legal (and I am not advocating anyone do it), it created an excellent customer experience that isn’t easily replicated by Sport Clips.

The Hillcrest Business Association has been working to create experience-based activities to promote retailers in Hillcrest. Some of these activities will soon be upon us. Hillcrest Taste ‘n Tinis is a holiday shopping event on Dec. 10 that rewards customers by allowing them to (legally) sample holiday martinis in retail stores while shopping. Shop Hillcrest for the Holidays — running Nov. 24 through Dec. 24 — is a shopping promotion that rewards frequent shoppers with a chance to win a Hillcrest shopping spree. The more you shop the more chances you have to win. HBA also participates in Small Business Saturday, which this year will be on Nov. 28.

As retailers plan the holiday season, I encourage them to think about ways to make shopping an exciting experience that will have customers coming back again and again.

—Benjamin Nicholls is el executive director de El Hillcrest Business Association.