Recommended reports
How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of Consumers
How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of Consumers is split into two separate documents for the US and UK, examining e-commerce consumer behavior in both countries. Both reports focus on how consumers interact with e-commerce brands, conduct product research and the different factors in the buying decision-making process.
Alternatively, see our JUMP Magazine: Issue three or JUMP Magazine: Issue four.
CEO at Econsultancy
22 June 2001 10:52am
There has now been enough market research to show that consumers like to have a multi-channel offering. Taking retail as an example, a customer may find an item in a catologue, research it online, buy it in store, check order status by phone and receive an order delivery confirmation by e-mail.
[Forrester stats say: 29% of consumers research online and buy offline but 87% of retailers don't offer real-time in-store inventory information online + 30% of online shoppers use two or more channels to access customer service but 57% of online retailers don't put a freephone customer service number on all pages etc.]
We also know that this presents a challenge to most companies who are structured around product lines or by channel: hence the interest in CRM where the 'single customer view' enables the delivery of a consistent customer experience across all channels.
Currently there is scant proof that delivering a multi-channel offering does actually result in a positive uplift in total revenue/profit per customer. It seems that retail companies (including other 'retail' areas such as retail financial services) do not have much choice but to follow this route in order to meet customer expectations and to remain competitive. But what's the return on investment?
There has been some recent information form Tesco that suggests the multi-channel approach does indeed result in *increased* sales per customer (as opposed to the same level of sales and greater costs to the business) and other recent figures suggest that a single-channel bank will sell 1.2 financial products per customer versus a multiple channel bank selling 3 (through better cross-selling etc.)
Has anyone else come across concrete evidence that a multi-channel offering is not just good for the customer but good for the business - not just as a 'me too' defensive strategy but as an aggressive value driver?