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Currently, if you type <a href="http://www.lillywhites.co.uk">Lillywhites.co.uk</a> into your browser, you reach a site under maintenance, belonging to its parent company Sports World. If you do a <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lillywhites&meta=">search for Lillywhites on Google.co.uk</a>, it’s not even top for its own brand. If you do some digging around and find out it’s owned by Sports World and that it is planning to rebrand as <a href="http://www.sportsdirect.com">sportsdirect.com</a>, you can go to that site. But it doesn’t have a bespoke section for Lillywhites and it’s not very good. <img alt="Market Share of UK Internet Searches" src="http://e-consultancy.lemonfoundation.com/graphics/lilywhites%20-%20oh%20dear.jpg" /> Of course, there’s no point going into the business case for launching a website or the size of the etailing market. But it's hard to imagine how such a big brand could be doing such a bad job on the net. Currently, the first page a consumer sees after searching for Lillywhites on Google is one on <a href="http://www.urbanpath.com/london/general-sports-shops/lillywhites.htm">UrbanPath.com</a>, where it’s called “a disgrace” and “a joke” by people that have been there. <a href="http://www.jdsports.co.uk">JD Sports</a> is also among the competitors that are mopping up a lot of that traffic by bidding on the ‘lillywhites’ term. <a href="http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-hopkins/">Heather Hopkins</a> from <a href="http://www.hitwise.co.uk/">Hitwise</a> gave us some more detail on the retailer's internet issues: <ul> <li>In December, <a href="http://www.halfords.com">Halfords</a> and <a href="http://www.mandmdirect.com/">M&M Sports</a>, the #1 and #2 ranked retail sports sites, received more than 200 times the share of visits that sportsdirect received. </li> <li>Last week, Urbanpath started to receive more traffic from searches for 'lillywhites' than any of the Lillywhites-related websites. However, in the four weeks to 30th December 2006, 22.67% of searches for 'lillywhites' went to lillywhites.co.uk and 22.35% to Urbanpath. </li> <li>sportsdirect, until recently, received a lower volume of searches than Lillywhites, underscoring the need to protect the brand (to prevent competitors such as JD Sports from bidding on the term) and to optimise the website to receive visits from the term. </li> </ul> <img alt="Market share - UK internet visits" src="http://e-consultancy.lemonfoundation.com/graphics/Lilywhites%201.jpg" />

<FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph>Currently, if you type <Link URL="http://www.lillywhites.co.uk" Window="New">Lillywhites.co.uk</Link> into your browser, you reach a site under maintenance, belonging to its parent company Sports World. If you do a <Link URL="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=lillywhites&meta=" Window="New">search for Lillywhites on Google.co.uk</Link>, it’s not even top for its own brand. </Paragraph> <Paragraph>If you do some digging around and find out it’s owned by Sports World and that it is planning to rebrand as <Link URL="http://www.sportsdirect.com" Window="New">sportsdirect.com</Link>, you can go to that site. But it doesn’t have a bespoke section for Lillywhites and it’s not very good.</Paragraph> <Paragraph Align="Center"> <Image Align="Middle" AlternateText="Market Share of UK Internet Searches" Source="http://e-consultancy.lemonfoundation.com/graphics/lilywhites%20-%20oh%20dear.jpg"> </Image> </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Of course, there’s no point going into the business case for launching a website or the size of the etailing market. But it's hard to imagine how such a big brand could be doing such a bad job on the net.</Paragraph> <Paragraph>Currently, the first page a consumer sees after searching for Lillywhites on Google is one on <Link URL="http://www.urbanpath.com/london/general-sports-shops/lillywhites.htm" Window="New">UrbanPath.com</Link>, where it’s called <Quote>“a disgrace”</Quote> and <Quote>“a joke”</Quote> by people that have been there. <Link URL="http://www.jdsports.co.uk" Window="New">JD Sports</Link> is also among the competitors that are mopping up a lot of that traffic by bidding on the ‘lillywhites’ term.</Paragraph> <Paragraph> <Link URL="http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-hopkins/" Window="New">Heather Hopkins</Link> from <Link URL="http://www.hitwise.co.uk/" Window="New">Hitwise</Link> gave us some more detail on the retailer's internet issues: </Paragraph> <List Type="Disc"> <ListItem>In December, <Link URL="http://www.halfords.com" Window="New">Halfords</Link> and <Link URL="http://www.mandmdirect.com/" Window="New">M&M Sports</Link>, the #1 and #2 ranked retail sports sites, received more than 200 times the share of visits that sportsdirect received. <LineBreak /><LineBreak /></ListItem> <ListItem>Last week, Urbanpath started to receive more traffic from searches for 'lillywhites' than any of the Lillywhites-related websites. However, in the four weeks to 30th December 2006, 22.67% of searches for 'lillywhites' went to lillywhites.co.uk and 22.35% to Urbanpath. <LineBreak /><LineBreak /></ListItem> <ListItem>sportsdirect, until recently, received a lower volume of searches than Lillywhites, underscoring the need to protect the brand (to prevent competitors such as JD Sports from bidding on the term) and to optimise the website to receive visits from the term. </ListItem> </List> <Paragraph> <Image Align="Middle" AlternateText="Market share - UK internet visits" Source="http://e-consultancy.lemonfoundation.com/graphics/Lilywhites%201.jpg"> </Image> </Paragraph> </FormattedContent>

2007-01-08T14:43:00+00:00

econsultancy_xml

I foolishly took a trip into central London on Saturday, to try and find a new cricket bat at Lillywhites. As I’ve been abroad for the past few years and only recently returned to the UK, I didn’t know that the store had undergone some severe changes. Suffice to say it is not a rewarding experience - particularly for anyone looking for sporting equipment rather than clothing, and for anyone with a pram. It's so full you can hardly get down the aisles, and the one lift it has doesn't go to all floors... Anyway, this unhappiness could have been avoided, of course, if Lillywhites had its own website and I’d been able to check its selection beforehand.

<FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph Align="Left"> <Emphasis>I foolishly took a trip into central London on Saturday, to try and find a new cricket bat at Lillywhites. As I’ve been abroad for the past few years and only recently returned to the UK, I didn’t know that the store had undergone some severe changes. </Emphasis> </Paragraph> <Paragraph>Suffice to say it is not a rewarding experience - particularly for anyone looking for sporting equipment rather than clothing, and for anyone with a pram. It's so full you can hardly get down the aisles, and the one lift it has doesn't go to all floors...</Paragraph> <Paragraph>Anyway, this unhappiness could have been avoided, of course, if Lillywhites had its own website and I’d been able to check its selection beforehand.</Paragraph> </FormattedContent>

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Related Econsultancy reports include our <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/e-commerce-platforms-buyer-s-guide-2009">E-commerce Platforms Buyer's Guide</a>, <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/delivering-successful-e-commerce-projects">Delivering Successful E-commerce Projects</a> and <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/online-retail-2007-checkout-special">Online Retail Checkout Special</a>. See also the <a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/e-commerce-statistics">E-commerce Statistics Compendium</a>.

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Lillywhites makes a mess of online retail false

2007-01-09T12:43:00+00:00

lillywhites-makes-a-mess-of-online-retail

2009-04-30T05:13:13+01:00

2009-10-13T08:48:57+01:00

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