In a flatter ecommerce market, retailers are finding that innovation and investment helps to keep them above the average. IMRG figures out this week showed that online sales grew by just 6% in February. But individual traders are showing faster growth as they take multichannel approaches to improving the customer experience. Today we report on how Just Eat turned in strong growth in profits and revenues in its latest financial year thanks to just such a focus on what the customer sees, and how they see it.
Meanwhile, Shop Direct is also focusing on the customer with its in-house developed take on highly personalised home pages for Very.co.uk. No surprise then that Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe should today focus on multichannel, alongside product quality, as its key to competing with the other supermarkets.
Today we also report on French Connection, where almost a quarter of sales are now made online, and ahead of IRX 2015 we have guest analysis from Craig Smith of REPL, who takes a look at the role machines will play in the future retail workforce. This week we also have an extra guest comment slot, featuring Kevin Sparks of FACT-Finder with a contrarian view on why imitation is better than innovation when it comes to the online retail experience.
Our webinars
On March 19, we host the first in our series of IRUK 500 webinars. Social media and retail: living in a world of extreme customer expectation is at 2pm on March 19. Click here to find out more or to register for the free event.
Click to visit the Internet Retailing webinars page to catch up on any that you may have missed.
Our research reports
Our research editors research and produce regular reports on pertinent ecommerce issues. The latest, on Conversion Rate Optimisation, comes from Liz Morrell who explains here why this is a must-read report. Click on the links too to download your free copies of the Seasonal Commerce Report and Customer Experience Report.