First InternetRetailing Brand Index now online

The first InternetRetailing Brand Index, published in association with SmartFocus, is now available to read online.

In it InternetRetailing turns its attention to the phenomenon that is the brand at a time when brands are learning fast from ecommerce and multichannel retailers as to why they should sell direct to consumers. They’re learning that a direct relationship with the end consumer is a useful thing to have. From it, brands can understand who buys their products, and how often, how they feel about them, where they like to buy them, how they like to take delivery of them, and what improvements they’d like to see – all powerful insights that can help shape the product for the future.

A direct relationship means brands engage with shoppers, and take a highly active role in presenting their products. In the past, brands have done this through non-transactional websites, which focused on informing and presenting, rather than selling. But when they sense from their data that customers are keen to buy from them, it makes sense that they should sell to them as well. Some brands have always sold directly, but more are now joining them and in this report InternetRetailing’s research team analyses the Top100 brands’ performance in this area.

“By sharing our findings we aim to show what brands are doing, and what brands new to direct commerce can hope to achieve,” said InternetRetailing editor-in-chief Ian Jindal. “We’re looking at best practice and flagging up what the leaders do well.

“By doing so, we aim to highlight effective and practical ways of performing at the highest level. We hope it will prove a useful tool for both brands and retailers across Europe as they look at how their peers and colleagues in other countries trade, both as competitors and growth partners.”

The report sets the context, taking a wider view of the work that brands are doing in this area, and also sets out pan-European findings by listing the leading and best brands, illustrating their geographical spread in a series of heatmaps.

Download the report to see our in-depth analysis and find out what leading retailers do in Strategy & Innovation, Brand Awareness, Merchandising, Brand Engagement, Operations & Logistics and the Customer Experience. We also investigate two brands, Lego and Barbour through two highly practical case studies.

Knowledge Partners that worked with InternetRetailing on the research include website assessment company BuiltWith; website monitoring company GT Metrix, NCC Group, a company that, among other services, offers website monitoring and consultancy services to retailers; app developer Poq; email experts Return Path, and web traffic monitoring company Similar Web.

To find out more about the InternetRetailing Brand Index and to download the report click here.