Following the news that BHS has gone into administration, we wanted to get insight from the British public to see what they thought about it and if this would change the way they shop.

We used our Harris 24 service to launch an online survey to 300 members of the public and had the responses within one hour.

The first question was to establish their favourite department store. John Lewis, M&S and Debenhams led the way.

Opinions were split on whether the general public were worried for the future of British departmental stores. Although 51% weighted towards a no, 88% said that ultimately it wouldn’t have an impact on the way they shop, but many people expressed their sadness to see an iconic store being closed.

Interestingly, over half of the respondents thought BHS was outdated and didn’t keep up to date with the latest trends and with the increase of online shopping, BHS just didn’t adapt to the ever changing marketplace.

One thing that was clear though, 74% of the British public agree with the recent suggestion from John Mann, the Labour MP and member of the treasury select committee, that Sir Philip Green should lose his knighthood if he fails to repay £400m of dividends that were paid out of BHS.

At Harris Interactive we’re currently working with the leading retail brands to help them understand their consumers’ behaviours and what drives their customer’s perception.  This allows them to continuously stay ahead of their competitors and ahead of what’s next.

For a copy of the full research results; to find out more about us and the range of work we deliver for clients; or to commission your next research project – please call Umair Afridi on 0208 832 1642 or uafridi@harrisinteractive.co.uk