CHANNEL-HOPPING SHOPPERS
Channel-hopping shoppers
Mark Pigou, organiser of last month’s Internet Retailing Expo discusses the implications of multi-channel hopping for department stores
Compared with department stores, multi-channel retailing is a mere babe-in- arms: while many stores can trace their origins back 200 years or more, today’s digital options are even younger than the world wide web, born just 20 years ago.
British shopping habits that we have ever seen. Already, depending on sector, 10-20 per cent of retail sales are online; add the percentage which involve researching product online before buying in store and the number influenced by the web can be double or treble those figures. As last month’s IRX well
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Mark Pigou, organiser of last month’s Internet Retailing Expo (IRX)
demonstrated, today’s typical customer journey involves a great many more channels than simply browsing in a store. Adding to the high street and PC are
22 | Department Store News |
DepartmentRetailer.co.uk
he “babe” is, however, responsible for the greatest revolution in
mobile, social media, contact centres, online marketplaces, interactive television, as well as the old stalwarts of catalogues and off-the-page advertising. More importantly, today’s shoppers expect to find their chosen brands in whichever channel they choose to visit and they expect those brands to be consistent both in terms of product offer and service levels. For department stores with perhaps 500,000 SKUs putting the entire range online is challenging, but it is something tomorrow’s consumers will expect. Understanding how these
cross-channel consumers behave is vital and sessions on both cross-channel and customer experience are included in Internet Retailing Events' upcoming JumpStart May/June programme of short, sharp, half- day sessions looking at key issues for multi-channel retailers. While many of the UK’s
department stores were rather late in developing transactional websites they have rapidly caught up. Debenhams added a mobile-enabled website last September to complement its extensive range of mobile apps; House of Fraser’s new site – the group’s best-selling “store” – won plaudits for its redesign last year, while John Lewis is regularly in the top 10 of Experian Hitwise’s hottest shops. Successful multi-channel
retailing, however, demands rather more than adding slick apps or an efficient website. For channel-hopping shoppers the experience needs to be a single continuum. They expect to be able to collect or return goods bought online at their nearest store; they expect a store’s sales associates to be as familiar with the website as they themselves are; and – importantly – they expect to be known. For department stores “click
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