Archive for the ‘multi-channel retail’ Category

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MCR, the bricks and clicks revenge

May 2, 2007

When I wrote about the bricks and clicks revenge back in the 20th century, my view was that consumers would be looking at high street stores for an extension of their service across a range of channels and that some online only brands would struggle to compete with this multi-channel approach.

Some top British retail brands are living up to this potential with Argos and Tesco pushing ahead and an increasingly large pack following and looking for their own magic mix to take some of the advantage for themselves.

According to online retail research group IMRG, britons have spent more than £100bn online since 1995. Online sales for April ’07 rose 55 per cent, the largest rise since December ‘03 when Christmas shopping sent sales soaring. Retailers that embraced online sales early are reaping the benefits; Tesco is now the UK’s fourth largest internet retailer, with Tesco.com processing almost £1bn of grocery sales and generating profits of £56m. Only Amazon, Dell and Argos rank higher, with Argos easily transferring its catalogue shopping online to cash in on the boom. And John Lewis Direct reported good growth in the first quarter of the year, their Head of eCommerce, David Walmsley said online sales increased by 45 per cent in the period.

It’s not difficult to see why “bricks and mortar” retailers and catalogue companies are investing in the web and looking for ways to integrate all their customer channels. They are viewing the ROI of their web investments in a new light – total customer value. All the evidence is that customers who shop with a retailer in more than one channel are significantly more valuable, increasing their average spend by at least 50%. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the majority of consumers do their product research online before they purchase offline. This means that in-store, in-catalogue and online marketing and promotions need to be integrated to ensure best results.

So that’s what it says in the business cases being approved by the top retail boards, but what does integrated multi-channel retail mean to you?

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e-Commerce, ten years of selling stuff on the web

February 25, 2005

I first got involved in setting up eCommerce businesses in 1995. I was at Entertainment UK and we had decided in our immense wisdom that it was time to try selling Videos (not even DVDs back then) and CDs over the web. Most people hadn’t even heard of Amazon back then! Anyway with a bit of help from Simon Clark (then at Nettec) and a struggle with Barclays online payment processing we made it happen. We were selling stuff on the web, hardly anyone bought anything but we felt we were pioneers.

Now ten years later it’s all much more main-stream. In fact I would say that online retailing has really arrived in the last five years, tens of millions of consumers are taking advantage of the benefits of e-commerce. They buy online for convenience, selection and empowerment and the challenge for merchants is to make it easy and compelling to convert surfers into shoppers and to keep them coming back.

Success in online retailing boils down to getting the customer experience right, this is what drives greater conversion hence more purchases, higher levels of customer satisfaction and the financial results we all strive for. “Our research shows that retailers that offer the right customer experience and do not just think of the bottom line are able to reap the rewards of online retail.” Forrester retail analyst Rebecca Jennings (IT Week)

If you want to find out more you could do worse than checking out the benchmarking report Online Retail 2004 (e-consultancy & sales logiq) which reviews the user experience of UK retail sites in a useful way.

There are other key lessons to be learned for retailers with on offline presence – the bricks and mortar retailers and the catalogue companies. It’s worth keeping in mind that the majority of consumers do their product research online before they purchase offline. This means that in-store, in-catalogue and online marketing and promotions need to integrated to ensure best results.

News Link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/internet/ecommerce/
And http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/

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Online shoppers are forcing retailers to raise the stakes

July 30, 2010

If you own or influence online strategy you want to heed this quote: “Today’s online shopper is extremely web-savvy and expects more than ever, forcing retailers to raise the stakes,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. The quote came with the release of a report from Shop.org and Forrester: The State of Retailing Online 2007

What I especially like is the realisation that the best retailers developing their online strategies are focusing on two very important priorities…

1. Focusing On the Basics - Only well designed e-commerce sites get customers to the product and then through the transaction effectively, many have a lot of room for improvement. And that’s just the start of the experience, the whole delivery and service set up needs to work properly, and many just don’t today.

According to the survey, 88 percent of retailers plan to focus on improving content presented on product detail pages, with 80 percent adding alternative images, 72 percent incorporating lifestyle photography, and 63 percent integrating customer ratings and reviews. Retailers are also focusing on their homepages, integrating top sellers and “what’s new” sections, and making their Web sites more sophisticated, with dropdown menus and rollover lists in navigational areas. To differentiate themselves from competitors, online retailers are also making customer service a priority, with 33 percent of companies planning to invest more in live chat and 53 percent planning to enhance their guest checkout process within the next year.
“It’s encouraging to see more retailers planning to integrate customer feedback loops into their sales processes,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research senior analyst and lead author of the report. “Many retailers have been relying on site analytics data, which is strong at reflecting paths-to-purchase but typically weak at highlighting vulnerabilities or opportunities for improvement.”

2. Aligning Online and Offline Channels - Retailers are learning the value of operating in multiple channels, some are even recognising the need to injtegrate the channels.

Survey respondents said that 43 percent of catalog customers have also purchased from their online store and that 35 percent of online customers have also purchased from their bricks-and-mortar store. Online retailers reported that in 2006, they dedicated on average 18 percent of their marketing spend to cross-channel sales, up from 13 percent in 2005. Typically, such tactics included direct mail initiatives such as catalogs and email programs to drive customers to local stores. However, more retailers are also leveraging direct print mail as a way to increase online sales. According to the study, 66 percent of retailers measure the success of a catalog by how it increases web sales.

This all strikes a chord with me. I think the report is right, I’m seeing more retailers taking these two priorities seriously and that means we can all look forward to the continued rise of e-Commerce and Integrated Multi-Channel Retail – after 12 years in the industry that’s music to my ears!

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