Is your multichannel offer working?
Ecommerce proved to be a real winner over the festive period for those retailers whose multichannel strategies delivered. By Ian Sprange
The Retail Bulletin’s Omnichannel Retailing Summit, 5th February 2014, is the perfect event to network with your peers to debate the best way forward and hear from multichannel experts so you can benefit from the latest strategies for multichannel implementation to increase profits.
Just a few recent examples of multichannel successes included John Lewis who reported a record Christmas trading period as like-for-like sales surged by 6.9% year-on-year in the five weeks to 28 December. During the period, online sales rose by 22.6% to account for 31.8% of total sales as trade was boosted by a 61.8% uplift in Click & Collect orders. Furthermore, the retailer experienced its biggest ever day for online orders on Black Friday on 29th November.
Figures released by Experian show that website visits on Boxing day increased by 15% year-on-year (129 million visits), making 26 December the biggest online shopping day ever. In total the UK spent 17 million hours browsing and shopping online on Boxing Day 2013. In addition, UK shoppers spent 44.3 million hours shopping online across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Sales via mobile devices on Boxing Day grew by 63% year-on-year and accounted for over 45% of online sales, according to figures released by IBM, with the majority of traffic to retail websites coming from mobile devices on Boxing Day.
John Lewis said more customers than ever before chose to browse the retailer’s website on mobile devices with Christmas Eve seeing mobile take 56% of the traffic. On Christmas Day this rose to a record-breaking 76%.
Dixons Retail revealed that Currys and PC World saw record numbers of shoppers clicking onto their websites on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day following the launch of their clearance sales. The electricals retailer said website traffic increased by 16% year-on-year from the start of the sale at 7pm on Christmas Eve to 12am on Christmas Day.
Next reported strong sales in the run-up to Christmas and, as a result, has raised its profit forecast for the financial year ending 25 January. Next Directory sales, which includes online and catalogue sales, surged by 21%.
Neil Saunders from Conlumino commented that although Next will have been affected by the lateness of Christmas this year, its excellent multichannel platform allowed it to maximise trade, with customers ordering right up until the weekend before Christmas. This is a credit to Next’s operational efficiency which has created confidence among its consumers that its online operation delivers, in the very literal sense of the word.
There is no better time to hear how to increase your multichannel profits – register now for the Retail Bulletin’s 5th Omnichannel Retailing Summit, 5 February 2014. Discuss the issues with confirmed speakers from Pets at Home, Carphone Warehouse, Sainsbury’s, Crew Clothing, Blackwells, Ford Retail Group, Phase Eight, Bugaboo International, QVC UK, Virgin Media, eBay, Ideal Shopping Direct, Evans Cycles, eDigital Research, The Post Office, DHL. Click here to register and see full details.
