Darren Hitchcock

The dark side of ecommerce

The explosive growth of transactional and online shopper data means consumers are swamped with information. In just one internet minute, there are now 2m Google search queries, £83,000 in sales on Amazon.co.uk, 100,000 new Tweets and 6m Facebook views.

The retail industry is no exception. Whilst in-store product ranges are limited by the physical constraints of shelf-space, online retailers can display ten times the amount of products on their sites.

This leaves consumers with overwhelming choice. Yet research shows that most products are going un-noticed. As highlighted in a study undertaken by RichRelevance, only 44% of products online are getting attention; leaving 56% bypassed.

Furthermore, just 10% of products on an online retail site garner 75% of page views.

Bringing this back to the in-store metric, this is leaving over half of the shopping aisles in the dark.

Five ways to embrace omni-channel retailing

A decade after the rise of e-commerce, today’s mobile technologies and social media applications have contributed to a convergence of consumer demand and technology.

Consumers now expect constant connectivity and interactivity from retail brands and retailers must embrace omni-channel retailing, an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of physical stores with the information-rich experience of online shopping.

Tablets and the need for speed

The importance of fast load times in an online retail environment has been proven time and time again. Online, a shopper’s time literally equates to money.

Now, the research from our recent mobile study shows that it’s a shopper’s time on tablets that should be the focus on your website optimisation initiatives.

In the UK, 82% of mobile purchases are made on the iPad.