Venda, the on-demand ecommerce provider, is predicting that the number of UK retailers turning to on-demand, cloud based solutions to facilitate their ecommerce offering, will grow by at least 30 per cent in 2011.The company, which processes more than one in 50 of all UK non-food ecommerce transactions, also warned that businesses that do not adopt the cloud as part of their ecommerce strategy in the New Year will struggle to keep up with the fast moving retail landscape.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently announced that the value of UK ecommerce transactions hit a staggering £408bn in 2009, an increase of 24.9% on 2008. Venda believes this growth will continue and predicts that the power of the online channel will surpass that of the high street, forcing UK retailers, to wake up to the ever-increasing needs of the multichannel customer.
UK retailers of all sizes, including Tesco, Accessorize, Anthropologie, Paperchase, Cotton Traders, and Republic, have turned to the cloud over the past year. Venda believes the main reason for such uptake is that it offers significant flexibility, scalability and security for ecommerce practices at a potentially lower cost of ownership than other comparable solutions.
Eric Abensur, CEO at Venda said: “Retailers that are truly committed to their customers have to exploit the advantages that on-demand brings to supporting the demands of today’s multi-channel consumer or risk being left behind. It’s no longer a matter of questioning the potential of ecommerce for your business, but asking ‘how can I most effectively use its power to deliver the best multi-channel shopping experience?’”
Venda predicts this trend towards the cloud will be driven by 5 key factors:
• Multichannel – Single channel consumer behaviour is not enough
• Mobile commerce – After a long wait, mobile commerce is now a reality
• Social commerce – The commercial power of social networks is now undeniable
• Internationalisation – On-demand ecommerce drastically reduces barriers to entry
• Return on investment – The days of large set up costs and costly annual upgrades are over
www.venda.com
