retail | Internet Marketing Blog

Boots tops multichannel retail report after huge rethink of customer care

Boots provides the best multichannel user experience, according to a new report, just a week after announcing a major overhaul in this area.

The retailer introduced a "massive shift” in the way it trains and rewards staff last week, with the focus moving from sales figures to customer care measures.

According to Webcredible's 2011 Multichannel Retail Report, Boots offered the best overall experience, followed by M&S, Debenhams and Waterstones in joint second place.

by Vikki Chowney 15 November 2011 12:22pm 2 comments

Check out this supermarket’s email

The seemingly endless parade of thousands of brands you’re faced with in the weekly ‘big shop’ means it’s sometimes impossible to know where to start.

Similarly, opening my email inbox only to be confronted by a mob of generic and impersonal marketing emails trying to feed me their latest offers can be overwhelming to say the least.

by Margaret Farmakis 22 June 2011 09:45am 0 comments

Checkout best practice revisited

It’s been over two years since I published an article on the Econsultancy blog entitled: Are retailers following best practice to improve conversion rates?

In that article I was specifically looking at the checkout processes of a variety of retailers, and in particular whether or not they have enclosed (or in other words removed site wide elements and distractions to focus the user) the process.

In this article I have revisited the retailers who featured in this article to see which of the retailers who didn’t enclose their checkouts then are now using this approach .

Enclosing the checkout is an approach I almost always recommend my retail clients adopt as a primary way of improving their checkout funnel conversion rate.

by Paul Rouke 07 June 2011 10:50am 1 comment

WTF does usability best practice actually mean?

What constitutes usability best practice for e-commerce? In fact, what makes something/anything 'best practice'?

I’m the first one to say that I regularly refer to ‘usability best practice’ and best practice is certainly a phrase used often enough by Econsultancy. I thought it would be worth starting a discussion on what you think when they hear this term, and what you feel justifies having the label ‘best practice’.

Or perhaps you feel it should just be banished from our industry!

by Paul Rouke 27 April 2011 13:32pm 22 comments

Multichannel precision marketing at the store shelf

If you knew which customers were making decisions right at the store shelf, or on a showroom floor, would you talk to them differently than someone doing research from home?

Of course. Increasingly marketers are reaching shoppers through mobile devices as they make retail choices in stores. There's a huge opportunity for digital marketing to come "inside the store" to provide realtime air support to help win sales.

by Dave Wieneke 26 April 2011 14:06pm 3 comments

20 ways for etailers to optimise site search and navigation

Improving your site search and navigation can have a dramatic impact on sales. Not being able to find the product you want is one of the top - and sometimes overlooked - barriers to conversion.

In this article I've attempted to summarise what I see as the most important steps to improving the customer experience. While some require specific technology, many of these ideas can be implemented on any website.

by Chris Moffatt 31 March 2011 09:49am 3 comments

China: Is the East the new West for e-commerce?

China is a difficult market to currently crack for international businesses, but a shift appears to be happening, driven largely by e-commerce.

In association with Toluna, Econsultancy has carried out a survey of online consumer behaviour in the region to try to understand this further.

by Jake Hird 14 March 2011 14:22pm 0 comments

What is behind the Christmas 2010 online growth figures?

Many retailers have published their Christmas results recently and on first glance it shows that many retailers did extremely well over the period online, compared to Christmas 2009.

It's only when you look at these figures relative to overall trading figures for each business that the true picture comes to light and all is, perhaps, not as it seems.

by Matthew Tod 20 January 2011 11:23am 7 comments

Q&A: Aurora fashion's John Bovill on multichannel retail innovation

Aurora fashion is best known for its high street brands, including Karen Millen, Oasis and Warehouse, with several hundred stores across the UK.

Aurora's group IT director John Bovill was recently named as one of retail's top 70 movers and shakers by Retail Insider, and the group also received Retail Week's IT team of the year award in June.

I spoke to him about the challenges faced by retailers moving into the multichannel space and the impact of mobile and online technology as a supply and demand chain facilitator, as well as the way Aurora has been working with BT Expedite to develop an innovative integrated store system.

by Matt Owen 08 November 2010 12:34pm 0 comments

How does a client judge its agency?

Iʼm reminded of a definition of e-commerce I read years ago when I first considered getting into the business. It goes like this:

"The concept of e-commerce is all about using the internet to do business better and faster. It is about giving customers controlled access to your computer systems and letting people serve themselves. It is about committing your company to a serious online effort and integrating your Web site with the heart of your business. If you do that, you will see results!"*

I remember thinking that the ʻserious online effortʼ sounded important, and quite simple.

by Sofie Moulin 18 October 2010 10:52am 4 comments