How the multichannel challenge keeps evolving

In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter, we report on two companies at very different stages of ecommerce. On the one hand, M&S has reported an 8% fall in online sales following its shift to a new in-house developed platform, while on the other Dunelm is reporting fast growth in multichannel sales, helping to lift its overall sales.

M&S, of course, is much further along the multichannel curve than Dunelm. It’s been trying to revamp its whole approach to retail from a point in which it was doing well, but was reliant on a platform that it felt was not the best for its business. Now it’s seeing a blip as the new platform settles in with an already established online shopping population. The hope is that will be addressed by the regular updates that the development team puts in place, and, indeed, the company says online sales are now starting to improve. Dunelm, meanwhile, is enjoying the lift that comes from having multichannel at all. Maintaining improvement over the long-term is the tricky bit, as M&S will no doubt vouch for.

Elsewhere in today’s newsletter, we tell how DPD has brought in some veteran footballing talent to launch its new Sunday service with special deliveries of Aston Villa away kits, we cover new Shoppercentric research that tells of the changing way UK shoppers are buying groceries, and we hear from House of Fraser on how its Internet Retailing award-winning commerce services have developed over the years.

Last, but not least, we also report on an award of our own, since Internet Retailing Expo (IRX) has won the title of best tradeshow over 2,000 sq m at the AEO Exhibition Awards.


Our webinars

Click to visit the Internet Retailing webinars page to find out about any upcoming webinars and to catch up on any that you may have missed.

Our conference

Our next big event is the Internet Retailing Conference, to be held on October 14 at the Novotel, Hammersmith, London. Keynote speakers confirmed so far include Mark Lewis, online director, John Lewis and Mark Newton-Jones, former group chief executive, Shop Direct and interim chief executive, Mothercare. The conference takes the theme of Re-foundation, and will be keynoted by retailers who have led transformation within their business as their product sector or the retail landscape have evolved. Find out more at http://internetretailingconference.com/

Catch-up on IRX 2014

If you missed an Internet Retailing Expo 2014 presentation that you’d like to catch up on, you can do so now through the post-event website. Visitors to www.internetretailingexpo.com can access all the presentations that we’ve been given permission to share with our audiences.