The week has started well for the multichannel industry, and today we have some eyecatching developments to report in today’s Internet Retailing newsletter. The champagne corks will be popping at John Lewis as it reports it’s achieved its long-standing goal of turning over £1bn from online sales, a year ahead of target. Find out more in our newsletter stories below, where we also report on the move by Asda to invest £700m into multichannel innovations including same-day delivery for online grocery orders, a move the supermarket is billing as a world-first.
Today we also report on findings that the UK’s online businesses are growing 57 times faster than the country’s economy, on the latest spending report that shows online sales up and high street sales down in early April, and on retailers including Claire’s as it launches its first UK ecommerce site and Amazon as it moves into TV production.
A reminder too that it’s catch up time for anyone who missed that vital briefing at Internet Retailing Expo (2013). Presentations and panels from the across the six conferences of the event are now available to view online at InternetRetailingExpo.com.
We’re also delighted to announce that the date has been set, the venue has been booked, and nominations are now open for the second annual Internet Retailing Awards. Click here to find out more and to nominate those retailers you think really stand out.
Webinars
We have some upcoming webinars to tell you about. Take part by registering for the free events on our webinar page.
Our last webinar of the month is on April 30, when Stibo Systems and Bazaarvoice join forces for a session on Staying relevant: creating a personal shopping experience that drives sales. In the 11am webinar, speakers Aurelien Dubot, product marketing manager EMEA at Bazaarvoice, and Simon Walker, director, ecommerce innovation, Stibo Systems, will discuss why it’s so important that retailers focus on their customers as they create shopping experiences that reflect both shoppers’ feedback and needs. They’ll be considering how to harness and learn from social data. To find out more about the webinar and to register for free, click here.
Then on May 2, we’re hosting a webinar in association with QuBit. The event, to be held at 2pm, will look at Website Personalisation – the best way to boost your conversion rates. Presenters Graham Cooke, chief executive of QuBit, and Nick Smyth, senior business development manager at QuBit, will show participants what personalisation can now achieve in matching unique variations of a site to different groups of people, whether through content, product information, offers or promotional messages, to drive significant uplifts to conversion. Find out more about the event here, where you can also register.
On May 9 at 4pm we’ll be hearing from Clicktale, in Featuring brilliant web optimisation: Learn how magazine.co.uk increased subscriptions by 28%. Vassilis Tourtouropoulos, senior conversion optimisation manager, Jellyfish Publishing, Carola York, managing director, Jellyfish Publishing, and Jonny Steel, director of business development, ClickTale will be our speakers for the event, in which they’ll sharing insights into how in-page analytics can be used to generate powerful insights that drive revenue and conversion – and they have some surprising findings. Find out more and register here.
Jumpstart events
Internet Retailing’s signature JumpStart events offer a chance for retailers to get quickly up to speed on the latest developments in a given area, hearing directly from expert suppliers and identifying and presenting the key questions retailers need to ask when procuring their own systems. Each full-morning event is held in Tower 42, 25 Old Broad Street, London and you can register to attend here.
On May 8, the JumpStart focus is on Ecommerce Platforms, with an event that will look at the development of ecommerce platforms, the new technologies which they can now include and the new ways in which they’re being delivered, from owned to software-as-a-service. Find out more and register to attend here.
Multichannel performance marketing is the subject for May 15’s event. From the outset, digital marketing has been focused on performance: whether PPC and affiliates, or vouchers and promotions. The focus of this session is to draw together the various disciplines within marketing and consider not only the individual performance characteristics, but importantly the multichannel view of customer profitability. Find out more and register to attend here.
On May 29, International and cross border trade is under examination. UK companies are seeing significant growth from trading internationally (outside the EU) and cross border (within the EU) and it’s never been easier to extend your online trading. Presenters at the Jumpstart will highlight the areas of concern, the pitfalls to avoid, as well as new opportunities in an event that will feature leading vendors in areas from multilingual to localisation, from payments to local customs and from logistics to usability.Find out more and register to attend here.
Cross-channel is the subject for the JumpStart event of June 5, where the focus will be on the customer, how they use as many touch points and channels as we’re willing and able to offer and how we combine behavioural data with service values, technology, people and process to deliver for them. Delegates will take away ideas, examples and case studies to extend selling activities beyond the web interface. Find out more and register to attend here.
The customer experience is in focus for the event of June 19, when we’ll be looking at how to provide an enhanced customer experience, not only optimising each channel but also considering how to bridge the experience over time and across channels. Topics will include interaction design, service planning, testing and customer service, delivery and logistics, and extend to how best practice analytics and behavioural tracking can help us towards that elusive ‘single view of the customer’ in order to sell more effectively. Find out more and register to attend here.
Today’s stories
John Lewis’s annual sales reach the £1bn milestone
Asda invests £700m in multichannel, including same-day delivery for online grocery orders
The UK’s online businesses – including etailers – are growing 57 times faster than the wider economy
Carpetright puts sales growth down to digital investment
Amazon pilots first own-brand TV shows through Lovefilm
Claire’s has an eye to future shopping trends in website launch
