Today’s newsletter reveals that more than half of European consumers don’t use digital channels to buy things, preferring instead to head to an actual store. While this is good news for bricks and mortar retailers, it is still a worry that there are so many people out there who are simply ignore this channel. Videos from the Internet Retailing Expo are now live, visit the site to see presentations from Argos to Waitrose and more.
And that is likely to prove costly to retailers – especially when looking for growth. As M&S results reveal, growth comes from digital right now, but if you can’t start to convert more of these nascent online shoppers (especially those that use the web to research, but don’t buy) then you can start to see more growth.
Of course, one of the key facets of this is in better marketing and it comes as no surprise that UK retailers and brands spent a whopping £6.3billion in 2013 on advertising to drive consumers to online and mobile. And marketing is forming a central tennet of how online business is going to grow to the next level.
But more needs to be done. As Forrester reveals in our top story, retailers – especially in Europe, although UK stores need to buck their ideas up too – need to look at how to make their sites more engaging, how to offer a coherent and continues experience across all channels and they have to optimize for mobile. Oh and the more click and collect you can offer, the better. These are the new realities of boosting sales across channels, believes the analyst.
Our research
We’re currently looking at the use of ecommerce techniques in the B2B sector. Take part in our survey to contribute to a research briefing that will be published later this spring.
Our awards
Nominations are now open for the 2014 Internet Retailing Awards sponsored by Venda . Last year the winners of these multichannel and ecommerce industry awards included Tesco, Burberry, Asos, Lakeland, eBay, Amazon, Oasis/Warehouse and LoveHoney, who celebrated their wins at a roof top party in the middle of the City. Who will take this year’s titles? This year’s awards will be announced at an exclusive event at One Mayfair on Thursday June 26. There’s also plenty of time to snap up a discounted early bird ticket to the event – though be warned, the opportunity expires at midnight on Thursday May 1.
Catch-up on IRC 2014
If you missed an Internet Retailing Conference 2014 presentation that you’d like to catch up on, you can do so now through the post-event website. Visitors to www.internetretailingconference.com can access all the presentations that we’ve been given permission to share with our audiences.
Chloe Rigby is on holiday
