In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter, we hear from IRUK Top500 retailers Marks & Spencer, Pets at Home and Waitrose about the impact that multichannel is having on the way they sell.
M&S shows that while its online sales are climbing quickly, that’s still not enough to make up for slow sales elsewhere – and it’s responding by refocusing its business on the customer.
Pets at Home is now seeing about half of its online sales collected in store.
Waitrose is seeing strong results from its use of personalisation.
What all have in common is that they’re reporting stronger digital sales thanks to the canny use of technology.
That’s a theme that continues in two studies we cover today. Each looks at a different but common ecommerce problem area and has some interesting findings. Barclaycard’s study considers the pressures that customer demand for free and easy returns puts on the retailer, while Connexity’s findings are around the abandoned basket – and whether it’s always a bad thing.
Today’s guest comment comes from Ian Gordon of iWeb, who takes the conversation beyond the consumer, looking at five trends worth noting in B2B ecommerce.
Our research
The latest InternetRetailing research, the IRUK Top500 2016 and the first 2016 dimension report, on Brand Engagement, is now available to download. Visit the IRUK Top500 section of the website to find out more.
Our webinars
Bronto marketing strategist Greg Zakowicz joins us for the next InternetRetailing webinar, where he’ll be discussing approaches to building an engaging user experience before and after purchase. Creating customer loyalty in an ever-connected world is on 2pm on June 21 (following a date change to avoid the England v Wales fixture in Euro 2016). Click to find out more and register for the free event.
Click to visit the Internet Retailing webinars page to catch up on the latest webinars, which are also available to view again on the IRTV channel.
Event presentations and interviews
Catch up with presentations and other interviews from IRC 2015 on the event website now.