As an increasing number of staples of the UK’s high streets and shopping centres close branches, lay off employees and outright disappear, many have pondered how brick-and-mortar retailers can revive their fortunes in the age of ecommerce.
Last year, a particularly frustrating experience in Zara’s Oxford Street store lead me to write this article, praising retailers who – in contrast to the Spanish retailer – typically excel when it comes to their in-store customer experience.
Since that time, it appears Zara has undergone quite a few changes, largely through an increased investment and focus on technology.
Mobile search, WhatsApp, same-day click-and-collect, digital currency and autonomous cars.
It’s just another week jam-packed with digital news.
Commence your catch-up…
There’s a real debate to be had as to whether retailers’ omni-channel hopes are realistic or delusional.
But for retailers clinging to the idea that there will always be a place for physical stores, click-and-collect capabilities are often touted as evidence that a brick and mortar presence still offers advantages.
New data, however, suggests that click and collect might not be as important as some retailers believe.
In 2012, Jerry Storch, then the CEO of Toys R Us, told attendees at the Shop.org conference that stores will never die thanks to omni-channel retail.
Since that time, many traditional retailers have invested heavily in omni-channel initiatives that seem wise, at least on the surface.
But are retailers’ omni-channel hopes really delusions?
Hiya everyone, we’ve got more 2016 predictions for you, this time in all-new ecommerce flavour.
Thanks go to our topic experts – a shoe-seller, an adult-toy-purveyor, and a consultant and #ecomchatter respectively.
If you want to try our other flavours, we’ve done SEO, content, programmatic advertising and UX.
Starbucks Order and Pay has launched in London, England.
It’s essentially click and collect for a rapidly cooling beverage – a frightening prospect, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Whilst we know the Starbucks app is good, a pioneer in mobile payment and loyalty, I thought I’d better expense a couple of coffees and try out this new Order and Pay feature. So, is it any good?
John Lewis announced yesterday that it would be charging £2 for all click and collect orders under £30.
The retailer says this move will reduce costs and enable long term investment in the service, but is it a good idea?
Click and collect has now become a must have for online retailers and it isn’t just restricted to the multichannels.
So what does the perfect click and collect experience look like? Here are some examples and ideas from retailers…
French Connection announced this week that almost a quarter of its sales took place online in 2014.
Ecommerce represents 23% of its total retail revenue, which is 20% up from the previous year and as also reported in InternetRetailing 24% of all orders were fulfilled using its click and collect service. This follows its recent investment in multichannel services, from the website platform to the warehouse.
Lets take a look at French Connection and examine how the retailer can improve its multichannel standing, paying particular attention to delivery, returns, mobile and social customer service.
As reported in our post discussing what we’ve learnt about click and collect since Christmas 2014, click and collect at John Lewis overtook home delivery for the first time at the end of last year.
56% of John Lewis’s online customers chose to collect their goods from stores, rather than have them delivered to home addresses. Overall, click and collect orders grew by 47% compared to the same time last year. John Lewis online orders rose by 21.6% to £1.4bn.
Delivery is a key part of the ecommerce proposition, so who is performing well in this area?
New data from StellaService investigates the performance of 10 of the biggest UK retailers across delivery and speed and ease of returns.