UK stores must adapt to the rise and rise of digital shopping, or face becoming obsolete. That’s the conclusion that British Land, owner of 29m sq ft of retail space, has come to in recent months. Today we bring you the full story including how it plans, as a major investor in retail property, to counter that threat of obsolescence.
Timely, then, that we also report on TUI Travel’s plans for its Thomson holiday company as it looks to transform its own high street presence for that digital future. Elsewhere in today’s Internet Retailing newsletter, we report on InPost’s plans to roll out a 2,000-strong locker bank network around the UK this year, on RichRelevance’s acquisition of Avail, and on Barclaycard’s use of personalisation to deliver ‘bespoke’ offers to UK shoppers. We also report on judgment day in the Internet Retailing Awards.
There’s also news here of the event itself, where tickets are now available to book.
And a reminder that it’s catch up time for anyone who missed that vital briefing at Internet Retailing Expo (2013). Presentations and panels from the across the six conferences of the event, the workshops and Innovation TV Studio are now available to view online at InternetRetailingExpo.com.
Jumpstart events
Internet Retailing’s signature JumpStart events offer a chance for retailers to get quickly up to speed on the latest developments in a given area, hearing directly from expert suppliers and identifying and presenting the key questions retailers need to ask when procuring their own systems. Each full-morning event is held in Tower 42, 25 Old Broad Street, London and you can register to attend here.
Multichannel performance marketing is the subject for tomorrow’s (May 15) event. From the outset, digital marketing has been focused on performance: whether PPC and affiliates, or vouchers and promotions. The focus of this session is to draw together the various disciplines within marketing and consider not only the individual performance characteristics, but importantly the multichannel view of customer profitability. Find out more and register to attend here.
On May 29, International and cross border trade is under examination. UK companies are seeing significant growth from trading internationally (outside the EU) and cross border (within the EU) and it’s never been easier to extend your online trading. Presenters at the Jumpstart will highlight the areas of concern, the pitfalls to avoid, as well as new opportunities in an event that will feature leading vendors in areas from multilingual to localisation, from payments to local customs and from logistics to usability.Find out more and register to attend here.
Cross-channel is the subject for the JumpStart event of June 5, where the focus will be on the customer, how they use as many touch points and channels as we’re willing and able to offer and how we combine behavioural data with service values, technology, people and process to deliver for them. Delegates will take away ideas, examples and case studies to extend selling activities beyond the web interface. Find out more and register to attend here.
The customer experience is in focus for the event of June 19, when we’ll be looking at how to provide an enhanced customer experience, not only optimising each channel but also considering how to bridge the experience over time and across channels. Topics will include interaction design, service planning, testing and customer service, delivery and logistics, and extend to how best practice analytics and behavioural tracking can help us towards that elusive ‘single view of the customer’ in order to sell more effectively. Find out more and register to attend here.
Today’s stories
UK retail stores will adapt to digital shopping, or be ‘essentially obsolete’: British Land
Next-generation Thomson shops set for summer launch
InPost sets out plans for 2000 UK locker bank terminals this year
INTERNET RETAILING AWARDS Judgment day
RichRelevance buys Avail for undisclosed sum
Barclaycard uses personalisation to counter ‘offer fatigue’
