Welcome to the latest Dimension Report in our IREU Top500 series. This time around, the subject is Mobile & Cross-channel.
At the centre of this area of RetailCraft is the idea of enabling customers to buy goods in ways that suit them. That might mean supporting a purchase that begins with research on a desktop PC and continues via mobile search, but is completed within a retailer’s app. The customer may then opt to pick up an item at a specific store.
Even European retailers not yet able to offer these kinds of joined-up purchases are familiar with the essential ideas here – if only because of competitors offering such services. But that does not mean retailers should be blasé about the challenges cross-channel retail poses. These kinds of joined-up retail experiences are difficult to get up and running. To sustain them in a cost-effective manner is just as tough.
This has made us think anew about bricks and mortar stores. What should their role be within a retailer’s overall business? Of course, the answer will vary from company to company, but this seems to be a question that retail professionals will be posing on a regular basis in the years ahead. This, we suspect, is a theme we will explore in more detail in our second IREU Top500 Mobile & Cross-channel Dimension Report, published later this year.
Ian Jindal,
Editor-In-Chief
ian@internetretailing.net
