Category Archives: Omnichannel

Omni-channel – bringing it alive in-store

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A new white paper has just been published that helps retailers create an Omni-channel environment in their stores. Most major retailers have already started to implement some form of Omni-channel strategy. Their objective is to enable their customers to consistently interact with them through all of the touch points in their purchasing journey, includes both on-line and off-line. This is a major task that will impact many parts of their business and take some time to fully implement so many retailers Read more [...]

The big question for shoppers

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Shoppers at the shelf edge often have one nagging question. Can I get this same item cheaper at another store? If you are in a grocery store looking at branded products the answer is much more likely to be no.  All of the big grocers have some form of price matching and now Waitrose has just announced: From today, our prices on branded grocery products are now identical to Tesco’s, excluding promotions. Every day common pricing (EDCP) EDCP is simpler for shoppers as there is less Read more [...]

Getting shoppers to buy more – Omnichannel goes back to basics

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It's easy to spend lots of time focusing on the new and exciting technologies for implementing Omni-channel and forget some of the most fundamental needs of customers. Go into almost any store and a proportion of customers will be paying in cash. It might be a large number of customers or a relatively small number but the actual revenue to the retailer will very likely be most significant. Now look at online. It may offer a wider range of products than are available in the store but Read more [...]

What makes eCommerce sites successful and how do we put it in stores?

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When retailers with eCommerce sites were asked by an RSR survey which technologies they most valued two of the top three answers were Product Reviews (52%) and Product Recommendations (50%). These results are consistent with previous years’ surveys in spite of the large number of newer technologies that have since become available. Retailers with eCommerce sites know from monitoring their sites that product reviews and recommendations sell more products. According to Reevoo  there’s a 178% Read more [...]

Promotional tickets that sell

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As retailers move closer to an omnichannel strategy we need to see what more can be learnt from the eCommerce channel and applied at the shelf edge in stores. Of course ways to increase revenue and profitability are particularly interesting. One source of information about eCommerce is a benchmark report from RSR called eCommerce 2012.  In this report RSR identified what retailers thought were the top opportunities to increase eCommerce revenues. At the bottom of the list of opportunities Read more [...]

Retailers top objective for 2012

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The top objective for retailers in 2012 is to raise profits without selling more items, according to Bjorn Weber from Planet Retail. Not any easy thing to pull off but I think that it's an excellent objective to test every business decision against. If an action does not help you achieve this objective either don't do it, or do it differently. Retailers have moved on from just cutting costs. The obvious reductions have already been made and some cost cutting actually damages profitability, particularly where Read more [...]

Multichannel or Omnichannel?

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Over the last two years almost every major retailer recognised that if they don't offer shoppers the option of buying their products online other retailers certainly will. In response to this challenge most retailers rapidly set up their own online shops, often with teams that were not part of Retail Operations. As stores and online were two separate channels and shoppers could choose which to buy from the term multichannel described the approach perfectly. What changed? Things developed rapidly.  It Read more [...]

Bricks and mortar vs on-line

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It's not about which selling model will "win" in the end. Bricks and mortar stores will continue to change to meet the needs of shoppers as will on-line stores. Neither are perfect but the development potential for a more rewarding shopping experience for both retailers and customers is enormous. Personally I believe that in a couple of years time we will have a similar total number of bricks and mortar stores as we have today but many of them will both look different and be operated in different Read more [...]