In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter, we’re reporting at a time when sales continue to grow faster via the internet than in stores, according to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium. Food sales grew faster than non-food sales, and online grew faster than the store. Hence Ocado’s strong sales, reported in full-year figures today.
As noted in those Ocado figures, it’s a time of changing customer behaviour. It sees more customers buying from mobile phones: as a result shoppers are buying slightly less, but more frequently. Similarly, Google figures suggest that shoppers were more likely to look for bargains on Black Friday than Boxing Day. Some of these are small changes but all are significant. Behaviour is changing slowly but surely and retailers are adapting to that.
The annual IRUK Top500 is a reflection of that evolution, and today we’re sharing the latest edition, the IRUK Top500 2018. The changes in the top rankings reflect to an extent that constant change in customer behaviour and the way that retailers are responding to it.
Mobile is a key part of that change, and today’s IRX preview focuses on mobile, and on how retailers are developing their work. We also recognise the changing customer in today’s newsletter. Our guest comment comes from Saima Alibhai of Oracle + Bronto who considers how to market to baby boomer shoppers.
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: recent sessions have come from IBM Watson on using AI to improve the customer experience, and from SmartFocus and The Entertainer on using social to reach digital customers.
