54
Future of Retail — Omnichannel
issue 07
“Retailers simply need to be channel agnostic and let customers shop how they choose.”
site. There was a disconnection between the new stores where we tell stories about the tea and the basic website. Only when we relaunched an international site that was aligned with the stores abroad was there a breakthrough and traffic rose exponentially online,” says Williams.
are looking to reassign store space for other uses. “The brand and products need to come
alive on the screen, showing the flavour profiles in the case of T2, and stories about the brand. Some businesses make the mistake of believing customers just want a basic offer online but people like browsing online. They leave boring shops and they also leave boring websites,” he says. Critical to this in-store experience is
employee training. Williams says: “There was lots of upfront training [before store openings] and the investment in product knowledge is huge. Employees need to reach certain levels before they go on the shop floor. Working for a speciality retailer they need to know about the products because disengaged staff loses you credibility.” T2 has gradually expanded its offer in the US
This was reflected with both online and
in-store traffic increases as both channels fed each other. In the US, the number one state for online sales was California even though there were no stores there: Williams says: “People would visit our Manhattan store and then order online when they got home.” The focus on telling stories about the
brand and the products was vitally important, according to Williams, who ensured this happened at T2 just as it had done at his former employer Hotel Chocolat. He is also intending to pass on such experiences in his new role advising retailers on their expansion - and also contraction in some cases where they
and UK through the opening of flagships with a strategy that has been unhurried. Williams advises start-up retailers to adopt a strategy of “thinking big and starting small”. He adds: “Some retailers have over-expanded as they have said you need a certain number of stores to show you’ve muscle. But I say take it nice and steady and instead focus on offering an amazing experience.” Part of the experience is the melding
together of the physical stores with the online operation, which he says should be done with an overarching objective of enabling shoppers to transact any way they want: “Omnichannel, multichannel, blah, blah, blah. Retailers simply need to be channel agnostic and let customers shop how they choose,” he says. As well as being the founder of DW Exec
Consulting (
www.dwexec.com), Williams is also a board director at Vini Italiani.
Image courtesy of Vini Italiani
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