June is around the corner, and plenty of retailers will be hoping that the warmer weather encourages spending online and in the shops. And not just hoping, in fact: if it warms up, the customers will spend.
Perhaps the sun will also be shining warmly on London for the Internet Retailing Awards on June 26. Last week we announced our commended companies vying to be crowned winners on the night. Now we can all look forward to the evening itself, where the industry comes together to celebrate success and achievement. Get your tickets if you haven’t already, and be ready to vote for your favourite, too.
Returning to the subject of weather and buying habits, and as Human Swarm, the recent Channel 4 programme, explored, it’s proven now that one of the most powerful influences on us all is temperature. It turns out the smallest changes affect buying choices, mostly without people even being aware of it. This March was the coldest in fifty years, leading to a jump in sales of porridge that benefited the likes of Pret a Manger and Quaker Oats – but surely it’s warm weather that UK retailers are waiting for now, with summer fashion and swimwear ranges and DIY goods and cold beer and barbecue burgers ready to sell. The opportunities are there for retailers, with the available data potentially making more useful information available than ever. Which just leaves us with the weather. Will it finally warm up – and stay warm? Here’s hoping!
We’ve a few things you might be interested in while checking those weather pages.
First, tickets for the Internet Retailing Awards (more info here) are now available to book. The shortlist of award winners has just been published. Do take a look.
And a reminder too 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.
Webinars
We have an upcoming webinar to let you know about today. On June 18, Gary Lombardo, solutions market lead at Demandware will be joining us, along with Nick Rawlings, marketing director at Lands End, to tell the story of how the US retailer has grown from a catalogue business into a digital commerce business with global operations in North America, Europe and Asia. The event, Global Brand, Local Commerce: Evolution of Lands’ End into a Digital Commerce Powerhouse, will be held at 4pm on June 18 and free to attend. For more information and to register for the event, visit the Demandware webinar page here. More information about our webinar programme is available here.
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 retailers can register to attend for free 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
Waitrose uses data analysis from Profitero to deliver Brand Price Match offer
Online retailer numbers in UK have doubled in five years
Rise of ecommerce sees dwindling use of cash
Clarks takes greater control of online campaign testing
GUEST COMMENT How personalisation will shape ecommerce
Fashion retailer Little Mistress adds Ukash payments
