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M&S, Halfords, Pets at Home, Topps Tiles and more on balancing stores and online

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In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter, we’re reporting as retailers from M&S to Halfords, Topps Tiles to Pets at Home update us on their digital progress. Stores play a role for all of them. M&S is looking to reduce its stores estate as it moves to reclaim a ‘special’ place on the high street. Pets at Home says it nearly has its ideal number of stores, while Topps Tiles is looking to grow its estate. Halfords, meanwhile, shows how it has successfully brought services and online into its stores, giving shoppers a reason to visit that, it rightly says, has differentiated its business from others. 

All of the retailers we report on also see a growing link between online and the store: M&S, for example, says that its stores will be supported by and include digital services as it looks to improve its customers’ experience.

That’s a situation also envisaged by Forrester. In a new report it projects that digital will play a role in European retail sales worth €1 trillion within just a few years – including 45% of those taking place offline. 

Today’s guest comment comes from Patrick Gallagher of On the dot, who considers why stores and online retailing both matter, while we also report on five myths around GDPR.

The 6th Ecommerce Cup

The new-look expanded event – now able to cater for up to 50 teams – is to be held on June 21. This is the sixth annual Ecommerce Cup, in which Tamebay is joined by sister publications InternetRetailing and eDelivery to host the event. 

The expansion comes after the cup was last year oversubscribed, with so many players taking part that the pre-match briefing had to be held on the pitch. 

This year’s 2018 Ecommerce Cup will again be held in Shepherd’s Bush – where the entire venue has been booked out – and is now open for bookings, with places allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to find out more and sign up. 

Webinars

Find out more about upcoming InternetRetailing webinars and register for free on the InternetRetailing webinar page. You can also catch up with past webinars on the page.

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