Mobile retail – its really here

Well there has been talk about it for years. Following the rise of online retail, the next step is retail on mobile phones.  Apparently it is already widely used in Japan.

Over here retailers are just beginning to make use of the new more sophisticated mobile phones such as the iphone.  It is a tricky decision for retailers though. There is no standard technological platform as yet. Develop an app for the iphone and it won’t work on the other devices which are out there.

Retailers such as Ocado and Oasis have developed iphone apps but perhaps the most savvy approach is that being adopted by Tesco. Tesco is opening an API up to developers and allowing third parties to develop apps for their faourite devices. This will allow both commercial organisations and enthusiasts to develop applications for any mobile device and interface with Tesco website. At the moment this includes searching for a product and adding it to a basket.

How great to be able to finish a packet of something, scan it with you phone and add the item to next week’s shop! People have been talking about this for a long time but finally it seems very close.

Woolworths launches pick n’ mix on line today

Woolworth's Pick n' Mix

Shop Direct Group launches the new Woolworths website today complete with a very cute Pick n’ Mix selector. Whether pick n’ mix on the internet will really take off remains to be seen. You have to choose 99p’s worth of each option and it costs £1.50 to deliver orders of under £5 and £3.50 for orders of over £5. Also where’s the instant, mouthwatering gratification… but you couldn’t have Woolies without Pick n’ Mix!

The other categories for sale are a main shop with kid’s clothes, toys and technology, an entertainment shop with DVDs, Games and Books and a party shop (self explanatory).

Interesting to see how this brand fares on line. Woolies has left a gap on the high street but does the online offer fill this gap?

Joules Clothing – email marketing at its best

Congratulations to Joules for coming up with such a great idea for their email marketing! This gave me enough of a laugh to forward to friends and with a prize of a chicken coop, it fits perfectly with Joules’ country image and the new “back to basics” mood of the public.

You have until the end of today to be in with a chance of a chicken coop!

Why catalogues have it in a recession

Here’s the scenario – you are trying to cut down on expenditure – no major trips to shopping centres, no cruising the web looking for things to buy… and a catalogue plops through your door. Maybe it is a brand you know and love or maybe it just has eye catching photography on the cover. You’re not in shopping mode, there is no harm in just flicking through it.. It looks interesting, you put it on the coffee table and pick it up later. You notice there is a free postage and packaging, there is a 20% discount… and before you know it, you’ve identified something you really need and are on the computer buying it. Or at the very least you might earmark something to look out for in the sale.

Like no other medium the catalogue catches you at home when you are relaxed and online ordering makes it so easy it is hard to resist. Catalogues themselves have improved in quality out of all recognition and delivery have improved from a typical 28 days when I was a child to next day. It is no wonder that this form of retailing is gaining market share in the current economic climate. Is the public gradually losing the habit of shopping on the high street?

How to manage online advertising spend?

I attended the Econsultancy Supplier Showcase on Search and Bid Management Tools yesterday. These tools help in house and agency web-marketeers make their way through the jungle that is created by all the various combinations and permutations of online advertising that are possible. For each campaign, once the keywords have been selected, there are options of using pay per click, organic search or affiliates, then these are combined with options for the ad text, the landing page, the match type. It can end up in thousands of options and the task of analysing which is most profitable is really daunting and is faced by every retailer with an online presence.

So what options were discussed at the event?

Systems to address this solution fell in two camps:

The black box algorithm. Set up a lot of options which will result in many competing combinations that can be tested against each other and also set your business goals. Sit back and let the algorithm optimise your spend for you. Of course you can’t actually sit back because you need to keep setting up new options for the system to analyse.

The rules based system. Use these types of systems to manage campaigns in bulk. Set up rules so that the system can change bids automatically or simply alert you, the manager, when certain events occur. This type of system may seem to rely on greater human skill but the black box system also needs feeding with likely combinations.

And finally there was the “humans are best” camp. There was certainly a view that the search engines provide a perfectly usable system for free with a range of reporting and that a skilled web marketeer using these tools can beat a system any time!

Has The Hut been reading my blog?

No sooner do I highlight what a great brand-building job Zavvi’s high street presence did but The Hut (who now owns the online Zavvi) announces that it is going to launch on the high street. Currently The Hut is pure play e-commerce operating its own site alongside white label sites for people like ASDA. The plan is to open banks of unmanned touchscreens with chip & pin machines in shopping centres. The aim being to build The Hut’s brand.

Kiosk vendors should take note…

The Ultimate Swing to Technology

It has been no secret over the last few months that the only retail channel where there is any growth is e-commerce. The credit crunch (now downright recession) has been hitting retailers hard and many are improving or launching websites to compete. The ultimate move to the web however, is when a brand built on the high street moves entirely online. This can be seen in a few examples, some more high profile than others.

Woolworths' blog

Woolworths’ fall into adminstration over Christmas is perhaps the best known example – and where is the Woolworths brand going to survive? Shop Direct Group has purchased it and plans to launch a Woolworths e-commerce site. See the Woolies Blog for updates on progress.

Zavvi e-commerce site

Zavvi, another high profile Christmas collapse, has also survived on line. The Hut has purchased the Zavvi e-commerce site and is already trading. This is particularly interesting as the Zavvi brand only had a year or so to get established on the high street after it was rebranded from the Virgin Megastore. The high street is still an extremely powerful method of establishing a brand.

ProCook e-commerce site

Finally, a lesser known example, ProCook (purveyor of saucepans and all things cullinary) is reported to be closing its 18 high street stores to concentrate on e-commerce. It will however be keeping 13 factory outlet stores. The website currently shows 13 stores.

Follow the money, follow the customers

And the third prediction for retail systems investment for 2009? E-commerce. Growth of online sales has slowed to only 9.4% in October 2008 but this is still significantly above high street growth! If this is how the customer wants to shop, retailers had better make sure their online offering is attracting the business. Multichannel integration may also attract investment for just this reason.

Another reason for picking e-commerce is that the technology is the shop. A website revamp is the equivalent of a shop fit – and we all know how often a technology project is bounced in favour of a shop fit!

So there we have it – two compelling reasons for the picking e-commerce as an area to invest in in 2009.

So where’s the good news?

If we ignore the “administration news” about the likes of USC, Adams, Zavvi and Woolworths for a minute, where’s the good news?

Well in the traditional approach to retailing we have Morrisons. Led by Marc Bolland, Morrisons are focusing on their fresh offering (fruit and veg is 6-18 hours fresher than competitors’) and have picked up 700,000 new customers and sales up 8%. All this without an online operation and no loyalty card. What’s more, as Morrisons are embarking on a major systems refresh using Retalix and Oracle Retail, it is good news for the retail technology industry as well.

According to IMRG online sales on “Mega Monday” (8th December) were up 18% in volume, only 14% by value – still it is enough to make the high street jealous.

And the final bit of good news – my New Year resolution is to be much more regular at blogging! I got a bit lazy towards the end of this year.

Looking for true multichannel integration?

 

If you are looking for true multichannel integration, it is worth taking a look at the offering from Unipower (see http://www.unipowersolutions.com/). The EPOS and WebStore are just different views of the same software so all transactions are in a common database. The WebStore is just another store with its own branch ID so you can buy on line and return in store and all customer data is held across all channels. If a loyalty card or postcode lookup is used to identify customers in store,  a customer will be able to see all their transactions irrespective of the purchase channel when looking at their account online. It will also be possible for store staff to look up the purchase history on a till or for the customer to view the history on a kiosk.  

For retailers looking for a total solution, Unipower are now offering a Microsoft Dynamics Nav merchandising and accounts integrated system.