In today’s Internet Retailing newsletter, we’re considering the changing shape of peak trading. We have analysis from Barclaycard that suggests a distinct shift among consumers as they moved more of their spending away from the high street and towards online this Christmas. Put this together with early trading figures from Elite IRUK Top500 retailers John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, both of which saw strong trading online, and a new pattern of shopping is starting to emerge. As Chris Wood, chief operating officer at Barclaycard, says in our analysis piece: “In many ways, this Christmas brought to the fore all the shopping trends of 2015.”
We also have the latest figures from Topps Tiles and Majestic Wine. Both report on the difference that multichannel trading is making to their businesses. And we also take a look at Sainsbury’s (as yet unsuccessful) bid for the Home Retail Group, and why the combination seems to add up good sense for the supermarket.
Today’s guest comment comes from Sean Jackson of EXASOL, who considers how retailers can use analytics to stay ahead of the competition.
Our webinars
Our next webinar is on January 19, when Grant Coleman of Zmags and Ketan Shah of Lyons Consulting Group will join us for a session on creating shoppable content. The two will discuss how retailers can best approach creating an immersive and personalised customer experience that keeps shoppers’ attention. How to create the shoppable experience that customers crave is at 3pm on January 19. Find out more and register for the free event here.
Click to visit the Internet Retailing webinars page to catch up on any that you may have missed, while you can also view them on our IRTV channel.
Event presentations and interviews
In today’s newsletter we’re featuring an interview with Christine Bardwell of Oracle at Internet Retailing Conference 2015. You can also catch up with presentations and other interviews from IRC 2015 on the event website now.
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