The economy may be on the upturn, but the figures seem to show that consumer spending is still restrained. This week’s latest ONS figures, for example, show growth in online spending over the last year – but a fall on last month. Across the board, the figures show, retail growth is still lacklustre. From retailers to property developers and social media, technology is being harnessed in some very interesting ways. We report on some of them today.
Hammerson, for example, is using digital, and in particular mobile and beacon technology, to engage with its customers as they walk through its shopping centre. Meanwhile, Morrisons is working with Quidco to recruit new customers to its service, using its data to target those shoppers who buy groceries online but haven’t yet tested Morrisons’ expanding service. Our guest comment comes from Phillip Smith of Trusted Shops who discusses what Facebook’s on-trial ‘buy’ buttons might mean for retailers.
Elsewhere today, we also report on Royal Mail’s latest figures, showing both that international parcel volumes are down as sterling strengthens, and that Amazon is delivering more of its parcels itself, we have news of growing sales but falling profits at Amazon itself, and we report on studies that suggest consumers are increasingly sceptical about the safety of their shopping data.
Our webinars
On August 20, we play host to Rackspace as it brings together the team behind Harvey Nichols’ multichannel transformation. Darryl Adie, managing director of Ampersand Commerce, Roland Breadner, head of ecommerce at Rackspace, will tell the story of how Harvey Nichols created a luxury multichannel experience that had the customer at its core. The free webinar, Exuding luxury through the omnichannel experience, the Harvey Nichols story, will take place at 11am on August 20. Find out more about the free event and register by clicking here.
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, Andy Harding, executive director, multichannel at House of Fraser, and Jérôme Cochet, senior vice president sales at Zalando. 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.
