Take Your - Retail Systems

Transcription

Take Your
Pick
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April - May 2012
FIRST CHOICE
CHOICE FOR
FOR TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY PURCHASERS
IN MULTI-CHANNEL
MULTI-CHANNEL RETAIL
FIRST
PURCHASERS IN
RETAIL
It’s a social life
Is social media just a bandwagon or does it
offer real opportunities for retailers? Retail
Systems investigates
www.retail-systems.com
Retail Business Technology Expo review • Roundtables • IMRG column
• BRC Multi-channel Conference review • Appointments
awards
Celebrating Innovation
Wednesday 24 October 2012
Lancaster London Hotel
Now open for entries!
Deadline for entries: 27 July 2012
E
E
R
F
TO R
TE
N
E
The Retail Systems Awards, now in their seventh year look to recognise excellence and innovation
in the field of information technology within the UK retail sector. They present an opportunity for
organisations to gain the prestige of public acknowledgement as being the leader in their field.
The awards are FREE to enter and there are 20 categories to choose from. An extensive panel of independent judges will meet to decide the winners, which will be announced at a black tie awards gala
dinner and ceremony on the 24 October 2012 at the prestigious Lancaster London Hotel, a night
of networking and celebration. Book your table early to ensure a prime position in the room at the
networking event of the year.
ENTER ONLINE NOW:
www.retail-systems.com/awards
Sponsored by
RS
Editor
Karen Moss
[email protected]
Contributing writers
David Adams, Graham Buck, Glynn
Davis, Wayne Tuckfield, Ellie Robinson
and Sheena McKenzie
Design & production
Jason Tucker
contents
Cover Story
22 Sociable service
Retailers who fail to engage with their customers via social media channels run the risk of serious brand damage. But
how should you manage comments and complaints on social media? Glynn Davis investigates
Features
Advertising
Lisa Gayle
[email protected]
15 Bigger and better
Now in its second year, Retail Business Technology Expo and Cards & Payments Solutions
is fast becoming the industry’s number one show in the UK. Karen Moss brings you the
highlights from the show at Earls Court, 13 and 14 March
Subscriptions
Joel Whitefoot
[email protected]
General enquiries - 0208 950 9117
[email protected]
Subscription rates
£98 p.a. in the UK
£140 p.a. elsewhere
Cheques must be made payable to:
Perspective Publishing Limited and
addressed to the Circulation Dept.
38 Social skills
The growth of social media and networks has been phenomenal over the last five years.
Graham Buck asks; how retailers have responded and which have been slow to react?
40 Changing conditions
Brits are famous for complaining about our unpredictable weather. But as Dave Adams
discovers, that universal talking point can have a serious affect on business continuity
Supplement
Main Switchboard:
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26 What’s the deal?
So you’ve got a Facebook page for your business; what now? How do you translate that
presence into customer loyalty and sales. Many believe deals and offers pushed through
social media are the way forward. Sheena McKenzie reports
020 7562 2400
Advertising Fax:
020 7374 2701
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28 word of mouth
Ellie Robinson writes: Social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, are becoming the
new ‘word of mouth’. Many consumers rely on product recommendations from friends,
so does this mean that ‘likes’ could translate into sales for retailers?
020 7562 2420
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All rights reserved. The publishers do not necessarily
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30 all atwitter
What opportunities does Twitter open up to retailers and how can they best tap into its
full potential? Wayne Tuckfield reports
Also in
this issue
08
10
13
18
19
General news
Multi-channel news
Diary
Thoughts from the frontline
At a glance
32
42
49
50
59
E-commerce roundtable
Payments roundtable
IMRG column
Appointments
Retail worlds
ISSN 1369-5037
Printed by Warners (Midlands) plc
All rights reserved
April - May 2012 RS 03
RS
comment editor’s letter
Mad March & April showers
It’s certainly been an interesting couple of months for the
retail industry with plenty of ups and downs
I
A warm March got
shoppers out of
hibernation and
in-store. Then came
April’s deluge of
rain. But while the
weather was bad for
some, department
stores reported a
sales boost
Karen Moss is Editor of Retail Systems. Her
blog on all things retail tech-related can be
found at: www.retail-systems.com/blog.
She can be contacted at: karen.moss@
retail-systems.com
04 RS April - May 2012
don’t know about you, but I thought March
was one of the most hectic months I’ve spent
in the retail industry. There was seemingly
an event, expo or conference on every week,
not to mention all the Q1 e-tail and High Street
shopping results to be analysed and written
about.
And it would appear that I’m not the only
one who’s been busy. Spring has sprung and a
warm March got shoppers out of hibernation
and online and in-store to pick out their summer wardrobes, beachwear, barbeque grub and
other summer essentials – like your twentieth
pair of sunglasses if, like me, you lose or break
yours every year.
Online shopping stats were particularly
impressive in Q1; UK consumers spent £5.8 billion online in March, the equivalent of £114 per
person, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini
e-Retail Sales Index. This equates to a year-onyear growth of 14 per cent for the e-retail sector and a nine per cent increase on February.
With more and more tech-savvy Brits using
smartphones and tablets fitted with sophisticated applications, shopping via mobile devices
is becoming an important driver of e-tail. As
a result, m-commerce has recorded huge
growth, up a staggering 254 per cent on March
2011 and averaging 300 per cent year-on-year
growth for Q1 2012.
The overall online market saw a 13 per cent
year-on-year growth during the first quarter
of 2012. March was given a major boost by the
sunny start to spring, which saw fashion-conscious Brits updating their wardrobes, resulting
in growth of 15 per cent year-on-year and a
steep 23 per cent month-on-month rise in the
clothing sector.
Then came April. I know they’re called ‘April
showers’ but come on – this was a deluge! We
went from being in drought to being flooded.
You would think that all that rain would have a
negative effect on the High Street, and some
retailers did suffer, but others actually benefitted from our unpredictable British weather.
John Lewis enjoyed a “stunning” trading
period as its customers chose to shop inside
instead of shivering outside. The company
reported especially high sales of electrical
goods, including the latest iPad, as well as
televisions, ahead of London and the south of
England’s digital switchover.
The KPMG/Ipsos Retail Think Tank (RTT)
noted that John Lewis is only one of a handful
of UK retailers riding against the tide; many
others are struggling to compete for business, resorting to heavy promotions, voucher
schemes and discounting.
But enough about the weather – on to
more pressing matters. Readers will be pleased
to hear that the 2012 Retail Systems Awards
are now open for entries. The awards close
on 27 July this year and the shortlist will be
announced on 20 August. The gala dinner for
our seventh annual awards will take place at the
Lancaster Hotel in London on 24 October.
This year’s judging panel will be: Hayley
Meenan-Wilkins, head of web operations, Tesco.
com; Nadine Sharara, head of e-commerce,
Thomas Pink; Christine Bardwell, research manager, IDC Retail Insights; Gary Lynch, CEO, GS1
UK; Will Grant, director of e-consultancy, Bitcala
and Paul Rodgers, chairman of Vendorcom.
I hope to see last year’s record number of
entries beaten this year and to see you all on
the night of the awards dinner for a glass of
bubbly.
This month also sees the launch of our
Multi-channel Summit, which will this year take
place at the bigger venue of Hilton Tower
Bridge, London, on 20 September. After the
incredible attendance at last year’s event we
decided it was time to upgrade. And we already
have a whole host of impressive speakers lined
up, including representatives from Tesco,
Schuh, The Entertainer, Shutl, IMRG, Facebook
and many more.
The event will once again be chaired by Martin Newman, CEO of e-commerce consultancy,
Practicology.
To register for the Multi-channel Summit
or to enter the awards visit our website www.
retail-systems.com or contact our events
manager [email protected].
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RS
comment
Printing in a mobile world
Star Micronics outlines what mobile IT means to them as the
technology explodes across the world
M
To Star mobile IT printing
means demonstrating
versatile print control
from mobile devices/
cloud computing; using
Apple iOS, Windows or
Android devices
For over half a century, Star Micronics
has established itself as a leading supplier
of small printers, audio components,
high-precision machine tools and parts,
with proven product development and
manufacturing expertise
obile IT for retailers is exploding
around the world and is suffering all
the usual problems of combining new
and old technologies into effective, working IT
solutions. The ‘IT’ itself is being introduced from
all angles and manufacturers, resellers and end
users are yet to understand the full impact and
value of this type of use of technology with the
result that all those involved in the sale of these
solutions must step up and see the bigger
picture to take full advantage.
The statement ‘Mobile IT’ itself has a number
of different meanings depending on the
type of retailer and/or application required.
As a printer manufacturer, mobile IT printing
to Star means demonstrating versatile print
control from mobile devices/cloud computing
including HTML 5 to both desktop and mobile
PoS printers using Apple iOS, Windows or
Android devices. The big discussion has been
which way the PoS market in particular will go;
Apple, Windows or Android? This applies to
applications as varied as queue busting to store
product ticketing to logistics control.
High-end retailers favour high profile
products such as Apple while other retail IT
departments prefer the philosophies behind
Windows and Android devices. As usual, with
more and more retailers wanting to use mobile
devices with desktop and/or mobile PoS
printers, Star is ready to support the customer
whichever way they jump. Star’s unique new
intuitive Software Developer Kits (SDKs) are
already making Star printers ‘sing & dance’
to the retailer’s specifications simplifying the
whole integration process. The Star Difference
has meant that a greater array of operating
systems and languages are supported with
organised and integrated files and actual code
samples, vastly improving on the confusing
choice of zipped files available from other
printer manufacturers.
However, the market is moving from using
just apps at which most SDKs have been
targeted and would much prefer to use
software with web based browsers which
benefit from all the advantages of cloud based
computing – lower hardware and software
costs; simplified solutions, etc. Printing from
the Internet using cloud based software has
always been difficult. The IT world, a committee
of OEMs and manufacturers including Star
Micronics, has been working on an international
standard called WS-PoS which will address these
difficulties by providing the blueprints for cloud
PoS and printing solutions.
Star Micronics Technical Support has
already made Star printers work with many
iOS solutions and has customer-based working
solutions for AirPrint (Star Alpha version ready)
in the field. Besides being on the international
standard WS-PoS committee, Star is working
with OEMS such as Google and Apple, with more
plans for HTML 5 within a couple of months.
So connecting mobile devices, iOS, Windows
or Android, to professional PoS printers is
becoming more easily achievable and “easy
installation” usually means less investment.
Making it work is not so much the problem,
but informing retailers of all sizes of all the
opportunities open to them is more complex.
Just mention Mobile PoS and many think a
mobile printer is required or a PoS solution
is being run in some form of transport from
delivery vans to petrol tankers. It would be
intimidating to nearly any retailer to consider
replacing the PoS printers sitting on their
counters with mobile printers. Investments
would be required for all new hardware and
training cashiers. Star has endeavoured to
preserve the desktop PoS printers for retailers
who prefer to maintain the comfort of the
printer upon the counter, even when the PoS
software is run on a mobile device.
Mobile PoS solutions are able to use all types
of receipt printers if the printer manufacturer
is ready with the appropriate support. Once
again, Star is fully confident that it will see
increased market share over the next 12
months due to the investment already made
with its sophisticated technical support for
retailers of all sizes.
The nexT generaTion of
inTernaTional address finder
Capture+ uses more intelligent and faster searching to
improve accuracy and relevancy. Simply start typing part of an
address and see the address search working as you type.
Works across the world
The service automatically detects
the user’s country and tailors
address look-ups accordingly.
Locates addresses on the move
Capture+ geo-locates nearby
addresses so you don’t even have
to type - perfect for mobile.
Auto-completes as you type
Start typing a business name,
address or postcode and Capture+
will suggest results as you go.
Remembers your favourites
Any site with Capture+ remembers
users’ favourite addresses so they
can enter them quicker.
www.postcodeanywhere.com/capture
news general
RS
IN BRIEF
Mobile payments
Barclaycard announced the launch of
Barclaycard PayTag, a new way to pay with
your mobile phone. Millions of Barclaycard
customers will be offered the chance to
make payments with any mobile phone by
simply sticking a Barclaycard PayTag to the
back of their handset.
E-shoppers spend
Global e-shoppers spend on average 22 per
cent of their annual outgoings on goods and
services online, shop for five hours a month,
and make the majority of their purchases
at 8.40pm, according to the Global Online
Shopper Report commissioned by WorldPay.
Contactless roll-out
Asda will become the latest business in
the UK to introduce contactless payments in partnership with Streamline
and Visa Europe. The new contactless
payment option will be available across 25
stores from July onwards.
E-tail is booming
UK consumers spent £5.8 billion online
in March, the equivalent of £114 per
person, according to the latest IMRG
Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. This
equates to a year-on-year growth of
14 per cent for the e-retail sector and
a nine per cent increase on February.
Game on; Groupon
One iota is aiming to take on the likes
of Groupon and other group buying
services, following the launch of DealsJoy.
DealsJoy is a free platform that enables
businesses of any size to capitalise on the
growing demand for special offers and
daily deals.
Mobile shopping
In March, shopping on mobile represented a 9.1 per cent of all e-commerce sales.
The majority of mobile revenue comes
from iPads which account for 82 per
cent of all mobile spend. However, March
average order values (AOV) were highest
on iPhones, jumping up significantly from
the prior month.
08 RS
April - May 2012
Delivering the goods
Domino’s PIzza IT director, Colin Rees, speaks to Retail
Systems about the company’s unprecedented growth
D
omino’s PIzza
have expanded their
business over the
last year, launching
mobile apps, exclusive social media
content, opening
new UK stores and even founding franchises in
Germany. Retail Systems spoke to IT director,
Colin Rees, about how Domino’s have supported
this rapid period of growth.
Last year Kcom was selected to provide IT
solutions and a Wide Area Network (WAN), as
part of a major outsourcing programme by the
fast food chain. Domino’s also patrnered with
Rackspace, a cloud hosting service, to support
their ambitious growth plans.
Colin says: “Outsourcing really frees up our
internal IT team and gives them time to do other things. It allows us to place greater emphasis
on innovation, which was something I wanted to
do when I first came on board in 2010.”
Domino’s have really expanded their mobile
capabilities and cater for Android, Windows,
and Apple devices, launching tablet and smartphone apps.
“Mobile now accounts for 14 per cent of
our online orders,” says Colin. “Pizza Tracker
on our apps is a really popular tool that helps
customers find out where their order is on the
delivery route and when it will arrive. We’ve had
fantastic feedback and it’s free to customers
so it’s win-win. On the iPhone app we built a
slot machine game, when you spin the wheel
you get a different offer; a free garlic bread
or something like that.” Domino’s multi-channel
strategy delivered a 63 per cent increase in
online revenues in 2010.
Their partnership with cloud provider,
Rackspace, has enabled Domino’s to have much
greater scalability. Colin says: “When we run
promotions we’re able to double the capacity
of the website overnight. We manage our own
applications and work in partnership with companies that are like-minded, like Rackspace and
Kcom. Historically we had our own data centre;
but the move to Rackspace was much lower
cost for the company.
Domino’s opened 62 new stores last year,
as well as franchises in Germany; the fast food
chain has six stores there now. “We look after
all the IT for that as well,” says Colin. “And we’re
building an international German language
website. Cloud technology itself is evolving and
it represents a really big opportunity for us in
the future to scale our business. As we learn
and understand the issues around security and
the challenges of running it, we will use it more.
In the future we may be able to do things like
scale our IT estate for three hours during peak
trading times.”
Domino’s have also been boosting their social
media presence, they’ve integrated more into
Facebook and now have half a million fans.
Customers who ‘like’ Domino’s on Facebook can
find and save their favourite pIzzas and share
them with their friends on the social networking site. “Facebook is becoming more and more
popular with our customers,” says Colin. “We
actually do product launches on Facebook now.
We tend to pre-release new pizza toppings to
our Facebook fans.”
Online stories
Most clicked on stories at www.retailsystems.com during April
Oracle supports Spanish retailer’s expansion
Asda to roll-out contactless by July
Manage queues to increase sales
UK shoppers spent £5.8bn online in March
Ann Summers grows social media base
One iota takes on Groupon
Brands want to sell direct to consumers
Fiat boosts web performance with Akamai
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Spreadshirt record sales
Retail Systems speaks to the e-tailer to find out why business is booming
S
preadshirt, the personalised internet
printing platform, has seen profits soar
across all business units with a 43 per
cent revenue growth year-on-year.
To keep up with global demand for customised clothing and accessories, Spreadshirt has
also announced it will open a second North
American factory in Las Vegas later this year.
Spreadshirt stocks over 100 different items
which everyone from individuals to clubs,
teams, bloggers and brands can splash their
message across by way of an easy-to-use online
design application on its website.
Philip Rooke, CEO at Spreadshirt, explains:
“The Spreadshirt platform is changing the
clothing market for consumers and businesses.
Our 2011 figures reflect the increasing success
of our role in e-commerce and customisation.
Consumer involvement in content creation and
the impact of gamification means they now
expect high levels of participation and response
from brands”.
Spreadshirt is looking to further expand into
a number of countries in 2012, including Brazil
and Turkey in 2012.
Spreadshirt’s UK growth has exceeded the
rate outlined by the Boston Consulting Group
in a recent report entitled: The $4.2 trillion Opportunity: The Internet Economy in the G-20. It
puts the UK’s internet economy growth rate at
10.9 per cent and predicts that by 2016 it will
grow to £255 billion, when BCG also expects to
see three billion internet users globally – almost
half the world’s population.
IN BRIEF
V.Me goes live
Visa Europe has confirmed that its digital
wallet service, V.me, will launch to an
initial group of consumers in the UK,
Spain and France in autumn 2012. The
card giant also announced that payments
processor, WorldPay, will be a key development partner in the delivery of the
V.me service in the UK.
Comet deal
Norbert Dentressangle has been appointed to manage UK warehousing and
distribution operations for electrical
retailer, Comet. The deal is worth around
£100 million over the next five years.
4G benefits
Research from Capital Economics, commissioned by Everything Everywhere,
says Britain will benefit from 4G LTE
mobile broadband, both socially and
economically.
RS
multi-channel news
IN BRIEF
URBAN VINTAGE
Independent retailer, Urban Vintage,
has seen a massive uplift in sales since
implementing HTK Horizon technology to
enable more effective marketing campaigns. Founder, Dan Le Sauvage, says:
“We originally started using Horizon for
a six week campaign last July to target
customers locally for different products
and different brands via email. Then during a sale we used SMS messaging to tell
customers within five miles of the store;
it was the busiest we have ever been
in-store and online. During the campaign
our online sales increased by 142 per
cent and unique visits increased 87 per
cent. Sales went up 92 per cent in-store
the first weekend and there was a 52 per
cent increase in sales for the month.”
Using EPoS data capture Urban Vintage
built up a database of 12,000 customers, now they use HTK Horizon’s SaaS
platform to market to their customers all
over the world.
“We like to keep in contact with our
customers,” says Dan. “The Retail Pro
inventory system, gives us peoples’ sizing,
how much they spend and the frequency
of their spend. We always make sure we
get feedback from customers and we’ve
had very positive feedback around the
marketing campaign, including sending
out emails to customers who have not
shopped with us in a while online. We
offer them 10 per cent discount if they
shop with us that weekend. Tracking
every click-through from our emails, we
can gather even more information on our
customers. It’s very important to tailor
the emails to our customers, generic
emails are no good.”
Urban Vintage are currently in the
process of developing a mobile app. They
have also linked their emails to Facebook
and Twitter so that customers can ‘like’
and tweet about products, They have
social media updates on stock and new
products so customers can view these
and leave comments. Dan says Urban
Vintage will also introduce iPads in-store
that people can use to view the clothes
instead of going through the rails.
Multi-channel state of mind
Glynn Davis reveiws the 4th annual British Retail Consortium
(BRC) conference on multi-channel retailing
M
ulti-channel retail is often focused on
the technology but since this way of
selling introduces new customer touch
points it is probably the case that the crucial
element in the mix – the employees in the business – are often overlooked.
The importance of people in multi-channel
retailing was a recurrent theme at the recent
British Retail Consortium Multi-channel-Retailing
2012 conference as there is growing recognition that they are absolutely vital to selling
across multiple channels.
The fourth annual conference took place
at the Hilton Hotel, Tower Bridge, London, on
Thursday 8 March.
Speaking at the conference, Tom Devine,
former managing director of UK and Northern
Europe at Game Group, suggested: “Multi-channel is a state of mind and not an IT system.”
He told delegates the challenge for a company like Game is to harness the capabilities of
typically young and game-playing employees in
order to best utilise their skills and knowledge in
a multi-channel environment.
“Product knowledge is vital in gaming and
our employees know the details [of products]
but our challenge is to translate this online,”
Devine said.
To do this store employees were brought
into the company’s head office to review
products, get them to feature in videos and
compare games.
B2b buying gift cards
Space NK’s new site
B
L
usiness to business gift card and voucher
sales in 2011 exceeded business to
customer sales for the first time since
records began.
This is according to the latest statistics
from The UK Gift Card & Voucher Association
(UKGCVA), the trade body representing the key
players in the £4 billion gift voucher, cards and
stored value solutions market.
The report, compiled independently by
consultants at Ernst & Young, shows just how
significant the corporate sector has become to
the gift card and voucher industry, with sales
of £2.18 billion, compared to that of £2 billion
in consumer sales.
Furthermore, vouchers purchased online by
the corporate sector increased by a staggering
231 per cent during 2011, which also reflects
the popularity of multi-channel purchasing.
eading luxury beauty retailer, Space NK
re-launched its e-commerce operation
on eCommera’s Commerce Platform. The
move is part of an ambitious plan to build its
brand and revenues globally.
The initial UK and US sites went live in April
and will be closely followed by the launch of the
first in a series of sites dedicated to specific
brands.
Through the partnership with eCommera,
Space NK now has a commerce platform that
enables it to support multiple, international
sites from a single product catalogue with
shared functionality that allows them to
manage their online presence with maximum
efficiency.
The new feature-rich platform also supports
Space NK’s multi-channel customer acquisition
and retention strategy.
multi-channel news
This involved them engaging in conversations
with customers both online and through social
media, according to Devine.
It is a similar story for David Kohn, multichannel director at Snow + Rock (that operates
Runners Need, Cycle Surgery and Snow + Rock):
“All three businesses are choc-full of enthusiasts,” Kohn said. “They are an asset but how
do you exploit this? We use them to populate
the websites and they create engagement with
customers. The call centre staff also review
products at quieter times.”
This is indicative of how multi-channel is sucking in more people to engage with customers.
Richard Cristofoli, marketing director at
Debenhams, said: “Increasingly the customer
relationship has a new guardian. It’s not just
front-line and marketers but also the supply
chain teams who now own part of the customer. This will demand a different mindset – from
[focusing on] cargo and instead onto customers
and customer service.”
He suggested that with multiple touchpoints now existing via the various channels
through which retailers now operate the likes
of Debenhams has “30,000 colleagues who are
all engaging as the brand”. No longer do marketing teams have control over a brand.
For many retailers it has been a challenge
just to convince their employees to join the
multi-channel journey.
Tanith Dodge, human resources director
at Marks & Spencer, said: “The mindset of
our [80,000] employees have been with
customer interactions in-store. Many have not
been online and have never used a computer.
It’s alien to them. Multi-channel has been a
threat.”
To address the issue the focus for M&S has
been on “demystifying” the internet by encouraging employees to use it, with PCs
now installed in the canteens and payslips now
accessed online.
“We’re at the beginning and have lots to do
but we’re building the confidence of the workforce,” says Dodge.
Among the other future-proofing initiatives
are giving new recruits the relevant multi-channel training and showing the firm’s ‘top 100’
employees the “roles they will need to play in a
multi-channel business in the future”.
To find out more about the recent BRC
multi-channel conference visit www.brcmultichannel.com.
RS
IN BRIEF
Asda app
Asda launched its first Android transactional
mobile app – allowing customers to buy
Asda groceries online using their Android
phone. The move follows the launch of
the retailer’s transactional iPhone app
and mobile-optimised grocery site back in
November and August last year.
MOBILE ACCESS
Mamas & Papas appointed One iota to
develop their e-commerce capabilities to
cater for mobile, tablet and Facebook shoppers. One iota was tasked with providing
an advanced mobile website which offers
customers key functionality such as access
to the entire product range on the go, locating their nearest store, reading customer
reviews and ordering online.
E-tail is ‘excellent’
Internet retail scored the highest at every
stage of the customer engagement cycle,
and utilities the lowest, according to a survey by eGain. More of the 3,000 European
consumers surveyed rated their experiences
with e-tailers as ‘excellent’ (a score of 5/5)
than any other industry.
Nikon’s new site
hybris developed a B2C and B2B multi-chan-
Tate relaunch website
Boosting online sales
T
S
ate Online Shop, the online outlet of
the Tate art galleries, launched a new
e-commerce website in April at www.
shop.tate.org.uk.
Tate commissioned their implementation
partner Venda in 2010 following a rigorous
selection process.
The brief was to redevelop a website that
dated back nearly a decade to better interact
with old and new customers while making the
site easier to navigate and use.
Tate worked with Venda for a year to reimagine and re-launch their online shop.
As well as simple, clear design, consistent
with the main Tate website, the new features
include fast and easy navigation, sophisticated
product merchandising, larger product images,
enhanced zoom, look inside functionality,
reviews and a quick-shop experience.
tanley Gibbons has seen a 72 per cent
increase in online sales in just under two
years, announcing online sales of £4.3
million. This increase looks set to rise, showing
the success of the site in becoming a prime
marketplace for stamp collectors worldwide.
The stamp retailer chose UK-based web
consultancy Sceneric and multi-channel commerce software vendor hybris to build its online
channel in 2010.
Keith Heddle, sales and marketing director
of Stanley Gibbons, says: “Increasing interest
in alternative investments means our business
continues to grow and do well, as customers
realise the wisdom of having tangible assets in
their portfolios. Since its launch in 2011, www.
stanleygibbons.com has helped us expand our
sales overseas into key markets such as the U.S.
and Far East.”
nel commerce solution based on the hybris
Multi-channel Commerce Suite for Nikon Europe. Nikon’s new multi-channel commerce
initiative, underpinned by hybris, will see the
company roll-out its ‘Nikon DealerNet’ (B2B)
and ‘Nikon Store’ (B2C) online retail sites
across more than 35 European geographies
by the end of 2012.
E-commerce expansion
Desigual, the international fashion retailer,
is extending its deployment of Oracle ATG
web commerce to support expansion of its
commerce capabilities and to help deliver
personalised shopping experiences. Since
its launch the Spanish retailer has grown
rapidly and now provides fashion through
its 200 owned stores, 7,000 authorised
retailers and 1,700 concession stores in 55
countries.
DEFINE & CONQUER
We’re proud to say our new UK consumer database is bigger, better,
more accurate, more recent and has more contact touchpoints than
any other database out there. With 43.5 million marketable individuals,
including 24m emails, 20m landlines and 15m mobiles, we can provide
the multi-channel data you need to increase sales in-store and online.
So if you’re looking to conquer new markets, capture new prospects
or simply dominate your customer’s wallet, why look anywhere else?
Email [email protected] or call us on 0845 60 60 609
www.callcredit.co.uk/define
diary
FOCUS
RS
May
Apple worldwide developer
conference (wwdc) 2012
11-15 June 2012
San Francisco
www.developer.apple.com/wwdc
1-3
Multimodal 2012
Location: NEC Birmingham
Contact: Clarion Events
Tel: 0207 370 8367
16
2
Future Payments Conference
Location: London
Contact: Vendorcom
Tel: 07793 553150
23
16
Contactless, Mobile & NFC SIG
Location: London
Contact: Vendorcom
Tel: 07793 553150
24
Olympics Roundtable
Location: London
Contact: Retail Systems
Tel: 020 7562 2401
11-15 Apple WWDC 2012
Location: San Francisco
Contact: Belf
Web: www.developer.apple.com/wwdc
14
International Retailing 2012
Location: London
Contact: British Retail Consortium
Tel: 020 7854 8900
12-13 Cloud Computing World Forum
Location: Earls Court, London
Contact: Keynote World Media
Tel: 0845 519 1230
21
Multi-channel Seminar
Location: London
Contact: IMRG
Tel: 0207 716 5604
Who wouldn’t want to go to an Apple
E-crime & Risk Management
Location: London
Contact: IMRG
Tel: 020 7716 5604
conference? Sunny San Francisco in June is
just a bonus as far as I’m concerned. Apple
Worldwide Developer Conference attendees
will have access to over 1,000 Apple engineers who will guide them through five days
of in-depth technical sessions and hands-on
labs that demonstrate how to harness the
power of the iOS and Mac OS X operating
Annual Retail Lecture 2012
Location: London
Tel: 020 7854 8900
systems into your apps.
Apple says on its website: “The new technologies in iOS and Mac OS X redefine the
possibilities for your app development. The
sessions at WWDC cover the latest technologies and development best practices on
iOS and Mac OS X and will show you how to
create great apps.
“The hands-on labs at WWDC provide an
unparalleled opportunity for you to meet
and work with the Apple engineers responsible for creating the technologies that
power iOS and Mac OS X. Take advantage
of this working environment to apply the
June
inspiration and knowledge you gain from the
sessions to bring your new ideas to life.”
Thousands of developers from around
the world attend WWDC every year. But as
one of the leading smartphone brands in
the UK, as well as being the platform used
to drive most of our shopping apps, what
retailer can afford to ignore Apple?
To find out more about Apple WWDC
visit their website where you will find a full
schedule of seminars and workshops for the
event as well as news, videos and information of Apple awards. You can also download
a range of technical resources for developing on iOS, Mac OS X and Safari.
14
Payment Seminar
Location: London
Contact: IMRG
Tel: 0207 716 5604
26
Retail Symposium 2012
Location: London
Tel: 020 7854 8900
MAVEN AND SAP
BUSINESSOBJECTS
YIELD FRUITFUL
BUSINESS INSIGHT
FOR BERRY GARDENS
“More than 20% of the company’s workforce
is now using SAP BusinessObjects daily
in one way or another. We’ve completely
removed the IT bottleneck by empowering
business people to satisfy their own
information requirements.”
James Judge,
IT Manager, Berry Gardens
Call: +44 (0)161 367 1255
Visit: www.maven-solutions.co.uk
James Judge
IT Manager,
Berry Gardens
RBTE review
RS
Bigger and better
Now in its second year, Retail Business
Technology Expo and Cards &
Payments Solutions is fast becoming
the industry’s number one show in
the UK. Karen Moss brings you the
highlights from the show at Earls
Court, 13 and 14 March
T
his year Retail Business Technology Expo and Cards &
Payments Solutions doubled in size, both in terms of
the show floor’s square footage and the number of
exhibitors. And if you needed any proof that this was a wise
move, just take a look at some of the stats: RBTE 2012 enjoyed
a 46 per cent increase in visitor numbers on last year.
And the event attracted 6,150 people, representing major
retailers from across Europe who participated in the Global
Retail Forum meetings that covered IT, finance, supply chain and
e-commerce topics.
The list of speakers this year was impressive and trying to get
in to see some of the keynotes – such as Paul Coby, head of IT
at John Lewis and Mark Fabes, IT director at McDonalds – was
reminiscent of queuing for a rock concert. The presentation
halls were packed, with standing room only in many cases, as
visitors crammed in to hear from a host of retail heavyweights.
On Tuesday 13 March, the opening day of the expo at Earls
Court 2, Richard Blunt, IT director at Jaegar and Mike Bielinski,
CEO of Vodat, educated visitors on the importance of the
connected store. Jaegar are doing some wonderfully innovative,
but very simple things, such as allowing customers to return
online purchases in-store.
Blunt said: “This makes the whole experience much more
connected for the customer, who doesn’t want to have to go
to the Post Office and queue up to send their items back. Plus,
once they are in-store they may buy something else instead.
It’s win-win.”
Bielinski stressed the importance of a completely branded
shopping experience and told expo-goers that Jaegar, with
the help of Vodat, planned to launch their own online payment
portal. “Once you have a customer on your site, you want to
give them a consistent experience from your brand. That isn’t
achieved if once they go to pay they have to pay through PayPal
or Amazon,” Bielinski said.
Next up to speak was Paul Coby, IT director at John Lewis,
who spoke about the store of the future. Interestingly, social
media was one of the topics highest on his agenda for the
future of John Lewis. The retailer actually launched their
Christmas ad on YouTube before airing it on TV.
“I believe social media is, and will be in the future, an important part of the retail experience,” he said. “For some retailers
it will be a commerce channel, for others it could be a means
of engagement or a way to foster greater customer loyalty.
One thing’s for sure though, social media shouldn’t be ignored.
Before working in retail I worked for British Airways, and I
remember well the YouTube video that went viral after United
Airlines lost a passenger’s guitar.
“The video attracted four million viewings in just 10 days and
was blamed for knocking 10 per cent off the United Airlines
share price and costing them $180,000. What retailer can
afford to ignore something that could have so much power over
their brand image?” Coby also spoke about new concept stores
opening up that would include beauty clinics and road-test areas
for buggies.
Mark Fabes, IT director at McDonald’s, spoke on Wednesday
14 March and illuminated delegates as to how the fast food
retailer has used technology to become a true family restaurant.
They have trialled interactive table surfaces where families can
play games as well as gaming zones and iPads for customer use.
They have also rolled-out free WiFi and are toying with the
idea of ordering online, Fabes said. McDonald’s are also testing
self service kiosks from Wincor Nixdorf and have seen an uplift
in use and sales over the trial period. They believe the kiosks will
The expo doubled in size this year
RBTE review
RS
Tony Bryant, head of business development at K3 Retail, said:
“It is no longer good enough merely speaking to IT directors
when you are selling a back office system, you need all levels of
the business involved in the discussions because these solutions
cut right across a company.
“Marketing and customer management have become a lot
more important, and can no longer sit in a separate silo with distinct software solutions. Retailers need to embark on fundamental change in order to properly utilise emerging technological
advances and to keep up with their competitors.”
Paul Rodgers, chairman of Vendorcom, who sponsor Cards
and Payments Solutions, said: “This year was a mixed experience,
A host of new retail technology innovations were on display
help with queue busting and are more family friendly as even
kids can reach the interactive screens. Fabes also shared that
McDonald’s have tested the idea of having mobile PoS in restaurants, giving staff the ability to take orders from tables.
As well as seminars and talks from retailers there were plenty
of Vendor announcements, including the collaboration of
Mako Networks, Phoenix Networks and Intechnology, as they
launched PaySecure Connect. Bill Farmer, CEO of Mako, and
Jack McDonnell, CEO at Phoenix, describe their solution as ‘PCI
compliance in a box’.
The customised central management system delivers cloudbased security management and PCI DSS compliance support to
card-present merchants and SMEs.
Bill Farmer, CEO of Mako Networks, said: “We’re delighted to
partner with an organisation of Phoenix’s calibre. Jack McDonnell
and his team have an exemplary reputation for quality service
and innovation in the payments industry. Delivered through two
certified PCI DSS Level 1 service providers, PaySecure is uniquely
positioned to provide the best available means for merchants to
achieve and maintain security and PCI DSS compliance.”
Jack McDonnell, Phoenix Managed Networks CEO, said:
“This new partnership with Mako enables us to further extend
our reach into merchant locations and provide a service that
simplifies PCI compliance without compromising security.
PaySecure streamlines the annual PCI DSS audit process, saves
money and resources, and significantly reduces the burden
of compliance.”
K3 celebrated the launch of AX 2012 for Retail and also used
the event to announce the search for the ‘Retailinsider.com
Top 100 Multi-channel Movers & Shakers’ of 2012. This is its
third-year of sponsoring the report, whose recognition as a key
tool for highlighting the major players in the industry has grown
since the first report was published in 2010.
but overall a good one. Session attendances were down this,
however on the first day we had 300 delegates at the Vendorcom sessions. I think there was a different dynamic this year but
I think this is encouraging. Retailers were carefully choosing what
they wanted to hear session by session chose and could dip in
and dip out.
“From an exhibition point of view, it was a much bigger
show, an increased number of exhibitors and more purpose
built stands. One of the highlights for me was the Vendorcom
party at Chelsea Football Club, 400 expo-goers and exhibitors
attended; it did a lot for bringing people together.”
Paperless Receipts was officially launched at the expo, but
the start-up was already garnishing praise from some serious
industry heavyweights, such as investor and chairman, Lord
Ian Maclaurin. Paperless Receipts, which creates and captures
digital receipts in individuals’ personal web accounts, just raised
£500,000 in a recent funding round.
Lord Maclaurin said: “This is a very exciting project. The idea is
all embracing – it’s free to consumers and allows them to store
and access their receipts easily and efficiently. They can also
store their loyalty card details in the same space. It’s also free
to retailers and will allow them to capture more data than ever
before and there’s a great environmental aspect. I don’t see any
downside, everything is very positive.”
Paperless Receipts’ software allows receipts to be sent to
shoppers directly at the EPoS or payment gateway. Andrew
Carroll, managing director, Paperless Receipts, said: “We are
updating and modernising an antiquated and outdated process.
“Retailers will obtain data-mining capabilities (or enhance
them), generate revenue via third party advertising, be able to
market to consumers based on specific buying preferences,
cut costs by reducing the expenses associated with printing
paper receipts and, of course, act in an environmentally friendly
manner.”
The Logic Group announced that they have teamed up with
NFC software and systems firm Vivotech. Antony Jones, CEO
of The Logic Group, said this will enable them to initially
RBTE review
engage with customers through an opt-in voucher distribution
proposition. He believes that initially the main use for NFC will
be vouchers and retailers’ loyalty programmes, however this will
lead to mobile payments in the future.
And Commidea announced their rebrand to VeriFone, after
they were recentlty acquired by the payment giant. Paul
Holliday, head of marketing & customer proposition at Commidea
and Alan Moss, VP for marketing EMEA, VeriFone, both said they
were delighted by the move and that Commidea clients would
be expecting bigger and better things now they had teamed up
with VeriFone.
Roy Ford, IT director at SPAR, used complete point-to-point
encryption payment solution from Commidea, to simplify its PCI
DSS compliance requirements. Ocius Sentinel helps safeguard
the convenience store retailer’s customer card payment data.
Ford said: “Before we implemented Sentinel we were getting
about 10 per cent polling errors per day from 2,500 stores.
That’s 250 stores that we would have to manually dial and by
the time we got the data sometimes it was two days old. As a
retailer you need to submit debit card transactions within five
days, otherwise you get a chargeback.
“We had two £5,000 fines over PCI compliance and were told
by Visa in no uncertain terms that we had to become compliant.”
Ford said the benefits to SPAR have been huge, including the
replacement of legacy chip & PIN terminals. SPAR are now able
to offer EagleEye Solutions couponing on a local level, so that
the offers an promotions in each store can be different.
Ford also said SPAR plans to roll-out contactless payments in
the not-to-distant future.
However, it was not just the product launches and high profile
speakers that drew the crowds to Earls Court this year, RBTE
organisers had also laid on some new attractions. These included
two days of Pecha Kucha seminars – short, snappy presentations
by technology vendors where they have to sell the ideas behind
their products in just six minutes. James Stafford, European
market development manager for Avery Dennison, who leads
their efforts on RFID adoption, was one of the participants.
He said: “I hosted my seminar with Kim Phillips, head of
general merchandise packaging at Marks and Spencer. Prior to
joining Avery Dennison, I was actually head of RFID for Marks
and Spencer and spearheaded the use of RFID item level tagging. Kim and I looked at the continued growth of RFID in retail
apparel and highlighted how the M&S RFID solution created by
Avery Dennison has been successful since initial implementation
in 2006.
“I also discussed how RFID technology can provide greater
inventory visibility and accuracy across all points in the retail
supply chain, as well as how the technology could be used in the
future. I thought the Pecha Kucha set up worked very well, it
RS
certainly made you think about exactly what it was you needed
to get across because you only had 20 seconds per slide.”
RFID seemed to be a hot topic at this year’s RBTE with Nordic
ID RFID Zone providing a platform to see all elements of RFID
in a practical environment in one of the expo’s new ‘innovation showcases’. BT’s ‘The Future of Retail, Lighting up the High
Street’, was the other innovation showcase and gave visitors
a glimpse of how we’ll be shopping in the future, with demonstrations such as a holographic greeter and translucent digital
display that showcased high-definition, full-motion videos.
Geoffrey Baraclough, marketing director at BT’s retail solutions divisions – BT Expedite & BT Fresca, said: “We had a lot
of very interested delegates come to the stall and everyone
wanted to talk about the same thing; mobilising their operations
in-store. I think customers are tired of waiting in line for a
point-of-sale and they’re tired of shop assistants who know less
about the prices, products and competition than they do.
With the amount of information customers now have at their
fingertips for shops to survive they will have to be points-ofservice as much as points-of-sale.
“To me that means digital signage, it means in-store
applications on mobile devices and a huge amount of innovation
in the payments area, that’s got everyone very excited at
the moment. “
Nick Field, event director, Retail Business Technology Expo
and Cards & Payments Solutions, said: “The Expo has delivered
on all levels, from a huge leap in visitor numbers, to a large increase in international retailers. When we did our research from
the 2011 show, we were told that visitors wanted to see more
innovation, and this has certainly been delivered, with two
fantastic Innovation Showcases, and of course our exhibitors
who knocked us out with their fantastic stands. It was also
great that so many of them used Retail Business Technology
Expo to launch some fantastic new products and solutions. We
can’t wait for the 2013 show!”
Plans for RBTE 2013 are already underway
opinion
RS
Thoughts from the frontline
opinion
Following the decision by the
European Commission (EC) to
delay the roll-out of ‘Project
Oscar’, the mobile payments
system, Retail Systems talked
to a variety of experts on the
implications of the news.
Richard Britton, managing director,
CloudSense, says: “The news that the
European Commission is to delay plans
for a mobile phone payments platform
will come as a disappointment to a
number of telecom operators. However
the delay is necessary to ensure the
long term success of mobile wallet
schemes, and will have a positive
impact on UK business.
Before consumers embrace a new
way of paying and start swiping phones
instead of credit cards, it is imperative
that all operators sign-up to a common
set of protocols that allow for mobile
payments to be used across a range of
industries. Banks, merchants, wireless
carriers and phone manufacturers all
need to come together and commit to
one platform that provides a secure,
payment architecture for mobile
payments to truly take off.
Importantly, the delay will give
businesses the time to prepare for the
arrival of mobile payments. To take
advantage of the growing opportunity
that mobile commerce provides,
businesses need to align their payment
processes with the changing way
modern consumers shop.”
Russell Sheffield, director of
innovation and development, paythru,
says: “While many might view the
European Commission’s expected
decision to delay mobile payments
negatively, it’s actually vital to make
sure that mobile payments adhere
to standards and are as secure as
possible before any major launch,
particularly for high-profile events
like the London Olympics. Consumers
need to be assured that personal
information like card details are safe
and, while imposing PIN codes on
transactions is a good start, storing
information on the device itself means
customer data is left open to criminals,
if the device is lost or stolen. To add
to this, while NFC does have many
benefits, it actually has a number of
limitations which ‘Project Oscar’ should
be thinking about.
Not only is it expensive to implement
NFC terminals, but NFC-chips will also
have to be developed for the devices
themselves and what about the
consumers that don’t have the latest
smartphone devices? This narrow
approach to mobile commerce is likely
to hinder the widespread adoption of
this technology. The goal is to appeal
to consumers’ existing behaviour
while keeping one step ahead of the
fraudsters. The last thing Project Oscar
will want is to tarnish the Olympics with
a false start on mobile payments.”
An EC spokesperson says: “The
Commission’s initial investigation
revealed that the joint venture and
its three parent companies may
have the technical and commercial
ability and incentive to block future
competitors from offering their own
mobile wallet services to customers
in the UK, or to degrade the quality
of these competing mobile wallets
so that they become less attractive.
The Commission will now investigate
the proposed acquisition in-depth
to determine whether these initial
concerns are confirmed or not.”
Karen Moss, editor, Retail Systems,
says: “It is true that security is
paramount when it comes to payments
and yes, businesses should be given the
chance to adopt a common protocol
for NFC. These are all excellent points,
but I think that the point we are
missing is that, in all likelyhood, NFC
would never have been ready in time
for the Olympic Games roll-out anyway,
even if the EC had given them the
green light.
I just don’t think that a joint venture
by mobile network operators could
launch their services so quickly in
the UK. Although, it is the sort of
collaboration that NFC needs in order
to become mainstream.”
at a glance
Rounding up all the major retail tech related stories
Square Inc has introduced an iPad app
aimed at replacing the traditional cash register and credit card terminal at bricks and
mortar stores. Square Register lets small
businesses set up a counter-top terminal
using a standard iPad to handle payments.
MARCH
The popularity of shopping through
mobile devices is continuing to grow at
remarkable speed, according to IMRG and
Capgemini. Sales through mobile devices
penetrated the five per cent barrier of
total e-retail sales for the first time.
The new Marks & Spencer online outlet
store – M&S Outlet – launched on
Amazon Webstore, Amazon’s stand-alone
e-commerce platform. The Amazon Webstore e-commerce platform allows sellers,
from small businesses to internationally
renowned retailers, to build a custombranded e-commerce site using Amazon
technology.
Oasis, alongside US brands American Eagle, Gap and Express, and Kiabi of France,
were named the world’s top omni-channel
performers, according to a new survey.
The survey of fashion retailers was carried out by Kurt Salmon, the global retail
and consumer goods consultancy.
Customers can now use branded RFID
cards, which they swipe in-store, to share
their activity on Facebook or other social
media channels. LifeSynk effectively
offers a “social media loyalty scheme in a
box” to businesses who want to increase
their word-of-mouth presence in the
social media sphere.
The Cloud rolled-out free in-store WiFi at
Edinburgh’s luxury Harvey Nichols store,
as well as in 60 Mamas & Papas branches
across the UK. Both retailers undertook
the deployment of WiFi to meet in-store
consumer expectations and as part
of their broader digital engagement
strategies.
Figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail
Sales Index revealed that shoppers in
the UK spent a total of £5.4 billion online
during February. This figure was up 10
per cent on the same time last year, but
representing a growth rate of just half
that recorded in February 2011.
The Game Group filed for administration
after a rescue deal was blocked by the
retailer’s lenders. The video game retailer
has been trying to negotiate with private
equity firm OpCapita, which recently
bought electrical goods retailer Comet.
Oasis has introduced iPad shopping to
its stores across the UK, following the
success of the technology in its flagship
London store. The company introduced
tablet computers as a point-of-sale when
it launched its Argyll Street flagship store
in London last year.
APRIL
Shoppers are increasingly impatient
and want a ‘rapid retailing’ experience,
independent research commissioned
by Cable&Wireless Worldwide (CWW)
revealed. Nearly half (46 per cent) of
online shoppers will switch to another
retailer’s website if they experience a 30
second delay.
A major new study by user experience
design agency Foolproof, shows how
mobile technologies are transforming
the High Street shopping experience. The
in-depth quantitative and ethnographic
study – ‘Going Mobile’ – also shows how a
poor mobile experience can often deter
customers from any further engagement
with a brand.
Ukash, the global e-money network,
has teamed up with Magento, a leading
provider of online shopping carts, so
that more internet retailers can easily
integrate Ukash and open their websites
to new markets and offer more payment
options for consumers.
An Entersekt survey on attitudes to
online shopping and banking, carried out
by OnePoll, revealed consumers’ fears.
The study of 1,000 people found that
41 per cent are convinced their accounts
will be breached in the future. And 53 per
cent said they had either been directly
affected by card fraud or knew someone
who had.
at a glance
at a glance
RS
Spending on mobile platforms reached
11 per cent in the UK during Q1 2012,
according to the Adobe Digital Index. And
tablets alone accounted for four per cent
of total search spend in the United States.
Amazon announced that it will begin accepting in-app payments from its online
marketplace. The online retail giant said
that it will be taking 30 per cent from
every in-app purchase made on apps
downloaded through the marketplace.
April - May 2012
RS 19
survey
RS
Do you have a fully opmised m-commerce
site and any accompanying apps?
Chart 1
H
Chart 4
13.33%
No
80%
Adapting to change
Unsure
3%
Yes
17%
60.00%
The results of the Intershop e-commerce optimisation survey makes for interesting
reading. To find out how retailers can succeed online, read on...
40%
20%
Vi
st
or
an
a
ly
0%
H
13.3
60.00%
35%
30%
Chart 7
Individualised product
offerings
3.33%
Rich product informaon
13.33%
Directs customers to
relevant offers
15%
10%
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how are the UK’s
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Advises customers oncustomers
Do you promote the visibility of your
products
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No
43%
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Yes
search engine marketing
57%
Do you use analysis tools for any of the following?
Chart 6
(SEM) is a must. However
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just over half (53 per
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4 steps to consistently achieving e-commerce success
Chart 6
To be successful in e-commerce today, we believe you need to be
What role
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successful
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number
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Chart 5
new customer acquision?
• Always be on the hunt for new customers
63.3%
• Work hard to increase the loyalty3.3%
of existing customers
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role
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• Never stop analysing your results so that you can improve on
all theHow
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does your
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t
Chart 2
100%
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en
gin
Chart 1
Hitting the
channels Chart 4
The results showed
that while many
No
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80%
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achieve a consistent
Chart 3
Yes
and personalised
17%
experience across
multiple channels,
few were actually achieving it. Of those asked, just one third
said their customer service channels had been synchronised
across their e-commerce, call centres and in-store experiences.
However,
what constitutes a multi-channel customer experience
What role does social networking play in
Chart 5a fully
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customer
also appears
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Only 17 per cent admitted to having
63.3%
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mobile apps for
3.3%
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example. At the same time as keepingItup
with the mobile channel,
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retailers need to engage in the social media
potential for
social marketing
Chart 5
is huge, and
63.3%
3.3%
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brands need
Minor role
to establish
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their presence
wherever their
33.3%
customers are
online. Chart
This4
means going beyond their retail websites and into the social
media venues where
their customers hang out. Yet despite this,
No
Do you promote
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a third of those
surveyed said thatUnsure
social media plays no part
3%
whatsoever in their customer acquisition strategy. By contrast
Yes
only one respondent had17%
gone the full distance to say that social
No
networking43%
played a key role in customer acquisition to the point
of being integrated into their e-commerce platform.
Se
ar
ch
I
n today’s increasingly complex and competitive retail environment, change is the only constant – what’s ‘hot’ today is sure
Chart 2
to be superseded by the ‘next big thing’ tomorrow. Yet, the
ability to adapt to change is, in itself, a constant.
The rise of mobile commerce, social media, multi-channel
retailing and the emergence of the more connected and
informed consumer means today’s e-commerce platforms need
to be able to service multiple channels and touch points; including
web, mobile web, mobile apps, marketplaces, call centres,
retail
Chart
1
stores, interactive displays and more. We call this new era of
multi-channel commerce ‘agile commerce’, because in this era,
retailers need to deliver a consistent, relative, highly usable
Chartand
3
personalised experience to all of their customers. It has never
been more vital for retailers to have an e-commerce platform
that is agile and able to adapt to change.
In order to better understand how retailers were grappling
with today’s challenge of engaging with their customers on
multiple channels, while also being prepared to adapt to future
challenges, we partnered with Retail Systems to conduct research
into their e-commerce strategies and platforms. Retail Systems
Chart
2
spoke specifically to IT managers, or those responsible for
their
e-commerce platforms, at 30 major UK retailers including the
likes of Casio, Mercedes Benz and John Lewis.
Chart 7
Ar
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RS
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relevant offers
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Chart 6
43%
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20%
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ectly referenced
opy but worth
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4.20%Analysis, analysis, analysis
0%
Lastly, continual analysis of your customers’ behaviour, your
systems and broader trends will ensure your e-commerce
operation stays ahead of the curve. Just five years ago the hype
was all around whether mobile commerce would take off, if
Are your customer service channels synchronised
social across
networks
were really
goingand
to in-store?
be part of the online retail
e-commerce,
call centres
marketing mix, and if multi-channel retail was just ‘pie in the sky’.
Now it’s all about web content management (WCM), product
No
67%
content management
(PCM), channel analytics and customer
When do you plan to review your
experience
management (CXM) – or enabling seamless order
Yes
management across a complex
multi-channel business.
33%
35%
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30%
25%
is20%
the really critical question, and this can only be found through
15%
rigorous
analysis of the data. Thankfully, most of the companies
10%
5%
surveyed
take their web analytics very seriously, with most using
0%
3 months
6 months
12 months
24+ months
analysis tools to some extent on their website. The degree of
sophistication does vary however; all claim to monitor visitor
analytics, while 60 per cent use analytics to monitor the site
layout, 50 per cent content clicks and 43 per cent to see which
products were the most successful.
10%
5%
0%
Chart 7
3. Optimising
3 months internal
6 months processes
12 months
24+ months
Improving internal processes is a must, and should be seen as
Not directly referenced
more than just an administrative task to reduce overheads.
including
Improving
processes
and
integrating
When
do you plan
to review
your systems can offer up new
and lucrative
ways of working with your customers, such as
35%
offering personalised recommendations based on their interests,
30%
25%
stocking
new products based on social media feedback or search
20%
art 7
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service
15% used
terms
on customer
the website,
orchannels
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10%
Chart 6
across e-commerce, call centres and in-store?
website
based on a review of analytics.
5%
t directly referenced
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he copy but worth
3 months benefits
6 months to12become
months
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months
For these
retailers must start
luding
No
by integrating their e-commerce system with the rest of their
67%
IT environment, including their EPoS, CRM and ERP platforms.
In the survey, Retail Systems found that for most companies,
Yes
this is far from being achieved.33%
Only one in five have integrated
7
0%
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e
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ofexperience?
agile commerce today, is one way in which
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offew
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to increase
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yet
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13.33%
offerings
33.3%
3.33%
100%
100%
are offering this. For example
just 13 per cent are directing
13.33%
80%
60%
their customers
to offers which
are targeted to their interests,
relevant offers
Chart 7
50%
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40% customers on
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33%
and only
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40% 10 per cent are offering
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respondent
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navigaon
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the
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your
60.00%
including
offering intelligent search and navigation solutions on their site.
The most popular method of delivering a personal shopping
experience – offered by 60 per cent of respondents – was in
No
providing43%
rich product information on the website.
100%
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5%
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ou
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4
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offerings
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offerings
3.33%
their e-commerce platform
with
their
EPoS system, with only a
Rich
product
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13.33%
slightly higher number (23
per
cent) linking with CRM/customer
relevant offers
service interface. One quarter
have linked their ERP/warehouse
Advises customers on
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management system with their
e-commerce platform.
Intelligent seach &
Vi
st
3
hart 4
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3%
ec
10.00%
13.33%
no role in customer acquisition for a third of firms, 63 per cent
said it did at Noleast play a minor one.
en
gin
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or
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Se
ar
ch
site and any accompanying apps?33.3%
Agile, open
ecosystems
We believe that a
strategic alliance
No
67%
built around your
e-commerce
Yes
33%
platform is the
best way to deliver
the agile, crosschannel e-commerce of today, while also being prepared for the
unknown needs of the future. The survey found that a third of
retailers are planning to review their e-commerce strategy and/
or platform in the next three months, with 70 per cent planning
to do so within the next year. Clearly change is still a constant.
RS
feature social customer service
Sociable service
Retailers who fail to engage with their customers
via social media channels such as Facebook and
Twitter, run the risk of serious brand damage. But
how should you manage comments and complaints
on social media? Glynn Davis investigates
I
f the view of Richard Cristofoli, marketing director at Debenhams is true; that watching traditional brands on social media
can be rather like watching your dad dance at a wedding –
then this is very worrying.
While there are growing reservations about the potential
for selling goods on the likes of Facebook there is consensus
building that these social media platforms are great customer
service channels.
A failure to use them effectively will result in retailers and
brand owners failing to engage with their customers and possibly running the risk of serious brand damage.
Kurt Bager, chief executive of Netop, says: “A lot of businesses
still fail to understand the power of social media. If a consumer
writes a complaint on their Twitter or Facebook page regard-
ing your product, that complaint can be seen and very easily
manipulated by all of their friends.
“Judging by the staggering 79 per cent of consumers who
shared their complaints about poor customer experience online
and had their complaints ignored, businesses still fail to take this
problem seriously.”
Part of the problem is that this is still very early days for
social media and most companies are chiefly using the medium
as an advertising, marketing or PR channel but not yet for
customer service activities.
Marketing tool
Meanwhile increasing numbers of customers are utilising the
sites to engage with retailers over disputes and issues, according to Juha Koski, managing director of MadBid.com, who says:
“More and more customers are now starting to expect to be
able to ask companies questions via this ‘immediate’ communication channel and retailers need to start treating this as just
as important a channel as any other to contact customers and
resolve any potential issues”.
But for now, Joshua March, chief executive of Conversocial,
says most retailers are simply ignoring any customer service
queries that appear on social media: “Every retailer is getting
issues on Facebook and Twitter but most ignore them, which
social customer service feature
is terrible for the customer and it’s very public. Some just say
‘email customer service’, which is also terrible.”
Part of the problem is that for the majority of retailers
their ‘social customer service’ activity resides in the marketing
department. They retain ownership of social media because it is
still largely seen as a brand marketing tool.
But the more progressive retailers are recognising that they
need to “plug-in real customer service agents and take it out of
the hands of marketing and into the contact centre”.
Although marketing still need to have an involvement with
customer service issues March believes the best practice is to
have a cross-departmental structure created.
Dedicated team
This would involve setting up a dedicated social media customer
service team that is placed within the contact centre and who
will have had the marketing team train them on their writing
skills and their “tone of voice”.
The key thing is that this needs senior executive support as
it will require the endorsement of a budget that straddles both
marketing and customer service departments.
Part of the driver for removal from the sole ownership of
marketing is the growth in volumes of issues that are starting to
come through social media.
“Even if it isn’t a customer service issue, if the volumes are
high then contact centres are the best places to deal with it. Marketing can’t deal with 10,000 questions hitting them,” says March.
Natalie Keightley, contact centre product marketing lead for
EMEA at Avaya, says large retailers are already receiving lots of
mentions on various channels so there is today a need to address the issue – with technology providing part of the solution.
“The challenge is to work out what to listen to and for this
you require an engine that will prioritise and filter and work out
what needs action taken on. And it then sends it on to the right
part of the business to deal with,” she explains.
The strategy can be to initially deal with individuals on the
social channel but then “ask them to go to a non-public area”,
which could involve a ‘chat’ function or email dialogue.
Bager says chat functions in particular are proving popular –
and also helping sales too. He quotes the statistic that 77
per cent of online shoppers would like to make contact with
a real person before making a purchase as they have often
questions to ask.
“If you can provide immediate answers to customer inquiries,
wherever they are made, then cart abandonment rates are likely
to drop and satisfaction rates will rise sharply. Fundamentally, if
you are keeping the customer engaged, you are more likely to
succeed,” he says.
Responding quickly is an imperative and so the use of software engines – from the likes of Cisco, Avaya, Salesforce.com
and Jacada – is beneficial.
Much of their usage to date has been on limiting brand damage with evidence of its positive effect coming from March
RS
who says cinema chain Odeon reduced the negative sentiment
towards its business on the various social media platforms by an
impressive 60 per cent.
But Koski believes that social media can be used for so much
more: “When used correctly and consistently, social media offers
retailers a low-cost way to deliver service; gather important data
on brand perception, product feedback and customers; cultivate
customer relationships and loyalty; enhance the brand image as
well as optimise sales.”
Steve Herlocher, vice president of marketing and business
development at Jacada, suggests social media is an opportunity
for businesses to improve their whole customer service
process: “By feeding new customer data through to the CRM
system/customer service department, retailers can now predict
or pre-empt problems to provide a higher brand experience
overall. “
Herlocher believes one of the challenges of achieving all these
wonderful things is linking the social media dialogue with the
actual individual – and thereafter dealing with them differently depending on whether they are a member of a loyalty
programme, a valuable customer, or an ‘influencer’.
Personal touch
At the moment he says the volumes of communications coming
through social media are at levels whereby retailers can still deal
with people on a personal basis but over time as volumes grow
then this approach will become too expensive.
“Social customer service is big enough to need to address but
still small enough to be able to take a personal approach. This is
enabling retailers to work on the best practice for the future,”
he says.
Herlocher predicts that the rise in the use of tablets will
prompt a rapid increase in communications with retailers
through social media: “By 2015 they will be the primary home
technology and it’s easy to immediately complain on them. This
immediacy will increase volumes [of social media traffic].”
But how retailers ultimately deal with this will depend to some
extent on their specific business models. For high-touch retailers
with high average transaction values he advises the route of
adopting a pro-active social customer service strategy.
But for those merchants with lower transaction values then
it will probably be sufficient to keep their activities at a brand
protection level.
Regardless of which camp retailers fall into, March says they
can no longer ignore customers who choose to communicate
with them through social media. “Every day more and more
companies are recognising and waking up to social customer
service and avoiding big brand damage,” he says.
The challenge will be to get their internal structures in
place before the volumes of traffic increase to difficult-tomanage levels while also learning the moves that will ensure
they avoid looking an embarrassment on the social media
dance floor.
RS
comment energy management
The new frontier
Energy management has become the new competitive
frontier for supermarkets including Tesco, says EnergyICT
E
EIServer is the energy
management solution
helping supermarkets
from EnergyICT, an
Elster Group company
nergy management remains a consistently hot topic for supermarkets. On one
hand it reduces energy costs at a time
of escalating prices; on the other it addresses
the public’s growing energy awareness. Any
successful supermarket chain should make
sustainability and energy efficiency a part of
their competitive strategy.
EIServer is designed to meet the demands of
today’s supermarkets, and has all the flexibility
needed for seamless integration in any environment. Tesco is one supermarket that EnergyICT
is making a difference to. In 2010, Tesco and
EnergyICT received the Platts Global Energy
Award for Energy Efficiency Program of the
Year, Commercial End-User, in recognition of its
success in reducing its carbon footprint.
As one of the UK’s leading exponents of
sustainability in business, and with a publicly
stated commitment to
reducing energy use, this
is an important issue for
Tesco. It is also a difficult
one. The company is one
of the largest retailers
in the world. As of 2009,
it had more than 2,250
shops with 286,000
employees in the UK
alone. It also has one of
the largest portfolios of
energy consumption in
the UK. The company’s
goal was to reduce energy consumption in order
to reach an equivalent of
a 50 per cent decrease
in CO2 emissions by
2020. In 2006 it sought
specialist expertise to
achieve that goal. One
of the key partnerships
Tesco formed was with
EnergyICT. EnergyICT’s
proven track record at
other large retailers, its
commitment to helping large multi-site
businesses control their consumption, and
its ability to initiate energy monitoring and
management service made it an obvious choice.
In addition, EnergyICT is a completely neutral
service provider with no formal connections to
any energy, HVAC or lighting companies. As a
result the company could guarantee the
delivery of reliable and unbiased information.
EnergyICT also takes all of the heavy lifting
out of energy management. EIServer performs
the necessary number crunching and EnergyICT
takes care of all back office work to deliver
clear-cut tailor-made reports. Tesco’s energy
managers in-stores and on its board can focus
on responding to this information and devising sustainable energy policies, rather than
worrying about energy management systems,
calculations or report formatting.
EIServer is central to EnergyICT’s energy
management service. A sophisticated energy
management platform, the EIServer incorporates essential services that are indispensable to
modern energy management systems, including
Meter Data Management, and Advanced
Metering Infrastructure support that helps
users mine their energy data and highlights
areas of energy inefficiency.
At Tesco, the EIServer processes and distributes data gathered from the chain’s network
of more than 10,000 main and sub-meters
for electricity, water, gas and heat. Almost
every store is equipped with sub-meters, which
measure and monitor specific energy circuits
ranging from lighting to HVAC and refrigeration. This data is collected and centralised by
EnergyICT’s data concentrators, then sent on
to the EIServer.
As a result, Tesco now has a mass of data
about its energy consumption. To turn that
data into usable management information, EIServer includes extensive reporting options that
can be configured to show consumption by
store, by area, energy type or function. Reports
can be drawn up on a yearly, monthly, weekly or
daily basis to give Tesco a precise snapshot of
exactly where and why it is consuming energy.
supplement
Going social
contents
26.....What’s the deal?
So you’ve got a Facebook page for your business; what now? How do you
translate that presence into customer loyalty and sales. Many believe deals
and offers pushed through social media are the way forward. Sheena
McKenzie reports
28..... Word of mouth
Ellie Robinson writes: Social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, are
becoming the new ‘word of mouth’. Many consumers rely on product recommendations from friends, so does this mean that ‘likes’ could translate
into sales for retailers?
30.....All atwitter
There aren’t many markets that offer a captive audience of 140 million
potential customers., so what opportunities does Twitter open up to retailers? And how can they best tap into its full potential? Wayne Tuckfield
reports
RS
RS
supplement
facebook deals
What’s the deal?
So you’ve got a Facebook page for
your business; what now? How do you
translate that presence into customer
loyalty and sales. Many believe deals
and offers pushed through social
media are the way forward. Sheena
McKenzie reports
F
or a while now retailers appear to have hit a brick wall
when it comes to Facebook.
They’ve set up a page, they’ve collected fans, they’ve
scored bucket loads of ‘likes.’ But then what? How does ‘keeping
up appearances’ on social media translate into real sales?
The answer may lie in exclusive deals, with a growing number
of companies using discounts, freebies and loyalty points as a
way of getting customers from the web and into the store.
As a retail researcher Christine Bardwell says: “Social media
has been difficult for retailers to crack.
“The way people integrate with Facebook doesn’t necessarily
mean they go to the shop. Retailers have been collecting ‘likes’
but ‘likes’ doesn’t mean revenue increase.”
The research manager at IDC Retail Insights added: “What’s
the point of just whacking up a Facebook store?
facebook deals supplement
“If you’re a customer you’re flying the flag for your favourite
brand on Facebook or Twitter so you expect them to respond.
“At the moment retailers are just pushing out the marketing
without discussing it. There needs to be a better approach. But
a lot of retailers haven’t worked that out yet.”
Customer rewards
One person who thinks he has the answer is Mike Gamaroff,
managing director of LifeSynk, an integrated social media and
customer rewards company.
Set up in 2008, LifeSynk features a loyalty card linked to
peoples’ Facebook accounts.
The customer swipes their card at a reader when entering
a store, simultaneously updating their Facebook status and
unlocking specialshopping deals.
Mike explained: “LifeSynk uses RFND (Radio Frequency
Identification). It’s 100-year-old technology – you’d use it in
hotels when you push your card in the door or when you swipe
your oyster card.
“Any company that has an outdoor venue – gyms, theatres,
shops – can have a reader at the entrance which customers
swipe their card on, generating deals or offers in-store and
broadcasting a message on Facebook saying they’ve been at the
store and have got this discount.”
Of course Facebook users ‘checking-in’ to locations to unlock
deals is not a new concept.
Facebook’s Places Deals launched in Europe last year, allowing users to check-in on their phones to bars, restaurants and
shopsto find out what deals are nearest them and share those
offers with friends.
But LifeSynk believes its advantage lies in the control retailers
have over the message being sent out and access to user’s
information.
Mike said: “Every time people authenticate the LifeSynk app
they give it permission to see info about them. Things like
date of birth, gender, geography, what stores have the most
check-ins, relationship status, likes.
“This is very useful for retailers to know. Before it was just a
blind experience. Retailers would send TV adverts out and hope
it would bring people in the store.”
Privacy features
Mike was also quick to mention the level of control Facebook
users have over their information, adding: “All the privacy
features on Facebook you can do on LifeSynk.
“You can disable those features but it might say you can’t get
a discount if you don’t have these settings.”
For Mike, urging people to check-in simply isn’t enough. There
needs to be some sort of benefit – which is where deals come in.
“On Oxford Street people might go into 10 stores and they’re
not going to check into all of them.
“But you would swipe your card because a 10 per cent
discount on your check-in would go down really well. This brings
you back but it also brings your friends in as well,” he said.
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Much like Christine, Mike agreed that retailers need to start
seeing real results from social media. He said: “In 2012, social
commerce is a big subject on the table. Everyone has seen what
Facebook can do for a brand. Now everyone is more interested
in how they’re getting people to buy stuff – they’re looking for
a return on their investment in social media.”
The software itself is flexible enough to be integrated into
existing loyalty cards such as Tesco Clubcards. A company
wouldn’t need to invest in new software, but simply link their
cards to the LifeSynk server.
Damian Hanson, CEO and co-founder of One iota, is one
person with plenty of experience equipping retailers with social
media technology.
His company, founded in January 2010, has already been
tasked with developing children’s store Mamas & Papas e-commerce prowess, including a tablet-optimised website, Facebook
commerce and iPhone application.
In April last year One Iota took its e-commerce a step further,
launching a Facebook check-in deals campaign with clothing
store Republic.
Check-in deals
Customers were encouraged in-store to show their online
check-ins at the till to receive discounts. However Damian
admitted:
“Whilst there were some successes there were a number of
areas which didn’t feel right, where it didn’t hit the masses in
terms of awareness.”
He’s confident his company’s new scheme, DealsJoy, will
succeed where the Republic campaign didn’t.
Damian said DealsJoy would best suit small-to-midsize
businesses and used the example of a hairdressing salon in
Manchester with 500 Facebook fans offering 50 per cent off
haircuts on Mondays to 100 people.
To claim the deal, fans would need to submit their details
including an email address. The salon would then send a unique
code to the fan, which they would take into the store to receive
the discount.
“It creates that customer relationship that previously didn’t
exist,” Damian said.
“From the research we’ve done we know that consumers
are hungry for good value propositions. We’d be looking to
make sale items available to Facebook fans 24-hours infront of
everyone else.”
It seems deals may be the answer to getting Facebook users
to check-in – and ultimately get them in the store. As Christine
argued: “At the moment checking-in is a bigger trend in the US
than here.”
Foursquare – the application which allows Facebook users to
unlock deals when they check-in – has taken off in America in a
way it still hasn’t here.
Although judging by some of the schemes being developed
by media companies in the UK, that may all be about to change
very soon.
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supplement
facebook ‘likes’
Word of mouth
Social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, are becoming the new ‘word
of mouth’. Many consumers rely on product recommendations from friends
and family , so does this mean that ‘likes’ could translate into sales for retailers? Ellie Robinson writes
T
here has never been a better way of endorsing a product
than through word of mouth. In the world of social
media site Facebook, this has been translated electronically into ‘likes’. Users of the website click on products and this
recommendation is visible to all their Facebook ‘friends’.
But what does this mean for retailers? Is it just a great
marketing tool or can users liking your product be reflected in
hard sales?
Research conducted by Experian Hitwise found that for
retailers, each new fan acquired on Facebook is worth 20
additional visits to your website over the course of a year.
Almost two-thirds of surveyed Facebook users reported that
they ‘like’ a company in order to learn about special offers and
deals. Following on from this, 41 per cent of Facebook users are
more likely to recommend a fanned product to a friend and 56
per cent of Facebook users say their purchase decisions have
been influenced by Facebook pages.
Social influence
Crucially, though, one out of four of those questions reported
that they had made a purchase from a brand’s Facebook page.
Juha Koski, managing director and founder of online auction
site MadBid.com said his business had seen real benefits from
the function.
He said: “It’s the interconnectivity of Facebooks’ members
and the ability to share purchase decisions, which makes this
social networking platform so powerful. At MadBid.com we have
experienced this first hand and optimised our Facebook page
into a thriving community, which has helped grow our online
traffic and sales. We have seen that visitors from our Facebook
page spend 60 per cent longer on our site than referrals coming
from any other source.”
Mr Koski warned, however, that the key to success was
quality rather than quantity. Retailers should focus on providing
relevant and unique content that would compel Facebook users
to discuss and share the information with their friends, as well
as garnering loyalty with access to exclusive merchandise, early
sales or one-off products.
Debenhams is taking advantage of social media endorsements
by using Empathica’sGoRecommend service. The application
facebook ‘likes’ supplement
encourages customers to become advocates of the Debenhams
brand by promoting positive retail experiences via social media
channels using an automated referral process.
Consumer recommendations
After customers complete a retail experience survey, the GoRecommend engine prompts those who were happy with their
experience to make an online recommendation on Facebook,
Twitter or email.
The results instantly generate a significant number of
positive brand impressions as the location-specific content can
automatically appear on both a brand’s Facebook fan page, and
a user’s profile page.
The department store has used the service to identify more
than 22,000 brand advocates who in turn have shared their
positive experiences with 2.2 million friends and followers via
Facebook and Twitter using the GoRecommend social app.
Kate Whittaker, strategy manager at Debenhams, said: “In
late 2010 we decided to include a coupon voucher with every
recommendation made by an advocate.
During the two-week promotion, advocates delivered the
voucher to their friends and followers on social media via
GoRecommend. From those advocates, Debenhams received
thousands of redemptions and sales.”
More recently it launched a campaign giving Facebook Credits
to customers who ‘like’ its page or sign up for newsletters, with
the aim of boosting regular customer interaction with the brand.
Managing director for EMEA at Empathica, Gary Topiol, added:
“It’s important to remember the large customer base that may
not have taken the time to find your brand on Facebook or
Twitter, but are happy to share their positive experiences.
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The challenge for retailers comes in rooting out these
customers and giving them the tools to amplify that message.
“The power of these peer to peer recommendations is
inarguable. Social media is no longer simply the latest marketing
buzz word – done well, it has a proven impact on sales, as our
work with retailers such as Debenhams clearly demonstrates.”
But acquiring a large number of ‘likes’ is only the first step for
retailers. The latest figures for fashion retailer TopShop, show it
had 2,273,584 likes and 22,801 talking about this. On the other
hand, online clothes store ASOS had 1,647,276 likes but 25,355
were talking about them.
Brand engagement
Eugene Kaznacheev, product manager, at shopping care software developer Ecwid, said it was getting users talking about
products that made the difference.
He said: ‘The more a user engages with a page, ‘like’ their
statuses and posts comments, the more often stories from this
page will appear in the user’s feeds.
“A page’s fans will see updates with offers and products only
if a brand communicates and engages them. The more engaged
users are with a page, the bigger the brands social community
becomes, the more updates they see and the more likely it will
be that Facebook activity will translate into sales.
Margaret Donnelly, director of marketing at social media
monitoring service MeltwaterBuzz added what the brand does
after that first ‘like’ is how they will derive value from their
Facebook presence.
She argued, however, that while this can lead to direct
sales, the real value of social media is the opportunity to build
relationships with their customer base.
She said: “Companies should be looking to drive deeper
relationships and affinity with their brands through social
channels, including using social media to gather product
feedback and address customer service issues, to provide their
community with entertaining or informative content, to interact
directly with consumers to build trust and advocacy and more.
“Deals, coupons and product spotlights are a welcome part of
the content flow--and many people will look to the brand’s social
media accounts for those values.
“However, the brand should strive to balance self-interest
with community interest with the goal of having regular and
meaningful interaction with their fans.”
Meltwater client Paddington Bear has seen the value of this,
even if it doesn’t result in the cash register ringing.
Managing director Karen Jankel explained: “To Paddington
Bear a ‘like’ is the Facebook equivalent of his pawprint of
approval. Although it doesn’t result in a direct sale, it’s an
indication that someone has read what you or others have
written about your brand or product and, by its very definition,
‘like’ what they’ve seen. It makes it the perfect tool to speak
directly to the potential purchasers of your products.”
supplement
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twitter followers
All atwitter
There aren’t many markets that offer a captive audience of 140 million potential customers., so what opportunities does Twitter open up to retailers?
And how can they best tap into its full potential? Wayne Tuckfield reports
T
witter is generating 340 million
tweets a day and attracting
the rich and famous, celebrityspotters and the general public – as
well as a wealth of headlines on a daily
basis. There is little doubt that the
social media site can have a real impact on the modern retail
world, according to Margeret Donnelly, director of marketing at
Meltwater Buzz, a social media monitoring tool.
She said: “Twitter should not be overlooked as one of the
most powerful methods of engaging with online audiences.
Twitter can provide retailers with extremely powerful insight
into how their brands and products are being perceived, used
and discussed – insight that used to be painstakingly collected
through focus groups, surveys and other slow and expensive
methods.”
The true potential value
of Twitter, however, is
the ability to engage with
current and prospective
customers. But while the
power is clear – giving
customers an immediate
opportunity to rave about – or criticise – your product to a
worldwide audience, is Twitter a truly positive innovation for
retailers.
Donnelly believes so. “The positives of using Twitter far
outweigh the negatives. Engaging with brand fans on a regular
basis enables retailers to be involved in the conversations taking
place about their product, gaining insight and they may not
otherwise have been privy to,” she said.
“Another positive aspect is the ability to pick up on negative
feedback or comments, before they escalate into a complaint.
“Many social media users are taking to Twitter on a regular
basis to voice gripes with brands from all industries and most
have come to expect a response in a short amount of time, so
it is important for retailers to be monitoring this and respond
effectively.”
Julia Staffen, product evangelist for customer experience
management firm Empathica, agrees that Twitter is a powerful
and beneficial tool.
“Facebook is good for letting customers have a conversation,
but Twitter’s strength is one-to-one contact. There is a lot more
personalisation on Twitter and you can say whether you have
had a good experience or go to someone directly to tell them
about your bad experience. But you must remember that just
setting up an account does not make a strategy.”
Once you are on Twitter, you have to find the right way to
take advantage of the huge benefits available – and Staffen
believes one of the site’s main strengths is the ‘hashtag’.
“They are very powerful tools,” she said. “They allow anyone
to take part in a universal conversation. For example the
Olympics – everyone will be gathering to talk about the Games
and hashtags allow that conversation to happen worldwide.
“If a campaign has consistency through the use of hashtags, and
the more customers that see it, the more can get drawn into
the conversation.
“You can convert from online to offline easily by adding a
hashtag and short description to any TV commercial, poster
or QR. Twitter also allows you to measure influence. Brands can
understand who their advocates are and work with people to
tweet on their behalf and share the love.”
Advocacy and letting happy customers “share
the love” is at the heart of Empathica’s
GoRecommend scheme, aimed at getting
people onto Twitter and other social media
sites to give their recommendation about
products and retailers.
twitter followers supplement
“We are really pleased with the way it’s going,” said Staffen. “It
started a year and a half ago and has evolved as social media has
evolved. We now have 1.5 million advocates.”
GoRecommend is used by more than 100 brands and allows
recommendations from real customers to reach more than 65
million people.
After customers complete a retail experience survey, those
who were happy with the service they receive are prompted to
make an online recommendation to Facebook, Twitter or email.
Companies involved include Debenhams and Giraffe, and
Kate Whittaker, strategy manager at Debenhams, said: “Late
last year we decided to include a coupon voucher with every
recommendation made by an advocate. During the two-week
promotion, advocates delivered the voucher to their friends
and followers on social media via GoRecommend. From those
advocates, Debenhams received thousands of redemptions
and sales.”
Staffen believes vouchers are an important gauge for your
social media strategy. “There are lots of brands working out how
to measure the impact of Twitter and Facebook and one of the
main methods is using vouchers, coupons and deals.
“It is often the number one reason people will follow a brand and
the reaction is phenomenally higher. You will have around a three
per cent response rate to a Facebook advert, for example, but
with vouchers that can be 20 times as high because it’s coming
from an advocate or friend.”
Indeed, e-vouchers are set to become bigger and bigger all
the time, according to Andrew Johnson, director general of the
UK Gift Care and Voucher Association (UKGVCA).
The growing market allows people to choose an e-voucher
from a particular store and then send a link to your friend on
Twitter who can put money towards that, or indeed a group can
“buddy up” by pooling their money towards an e-voucher for an
unsuspecting pal.
“From a brand perspective it gives you
a high profile and leads to a sale. Retailers
can even start the ball rolling by putting
the first £1 or £5 in the pot. Using social
media is an effective marketing tool and
puts you directly in touch with those
most interested in your product – your most loyal fans.”
However, for all of the obvious benefits of Twitter – to both
retailers and shoppers – there are inevitably times when things
don’t go to plan. And in the constantly updated world of social
media bad publicity can snowball with alarming speed.
So what do you do when criticism of your brand breaks out or
goes “viral”?
Empathica’s Staffen has some advice. “Before going into a
campaign have a plan for if it goes really well and a plan for if it
goes really badly. If things do go wrong you have a few options.
One is to say sorry – but the worst thing is to release a broad,
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unemotional statement. Lots of brands use humour and make
fun of themselves.”
One example is the American Red Cross, where one worker
accidentally posted a personal comment from the charity’s
account saying “Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of
Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer…when we drink we do it right
#gettngslizzerd”.
Realising it was an honest mistake they just poked fun at
the situation by subsequently posting “We’ve deleted the
rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we’ve
confiscated the keys” and the situation was resolved.
Staffen added: “Always be monitoring and always have a plan.
Don’t bury your head in the sand. Saying what you are going to
do about the issue is the most important thing. Remember
that content is changing a lot. As long as the
problem isn’t too serious or political people
will forget quickly and move onto the next
piece of news.”
One campaign that could have gone wrong
saw Snickers investigated by the Advertising
Standards Agency (ASA) after complaints about
Rio Ferdinand, Katie Price, Ian Botham and X Factor finalist Cher
Lloyd posting a series of “teaser” tweets before revealing they
were advertising the chocolate bar.
The ASA adjudged that the series of tweets did make
sufficiently clear that it was a marketing communication, and
Meltwater Buzz’s Donnelly believes celebrity endorsement in
social media will increase.
“Celebrities have been endorsing retail brands since long
before the evolution of social media and Twitter is a very
popular platform for celebrities However, it’s important for
retailers not only to choose their spokesperson wisely, but to
ensure any endorsements are transparent. While in the Snickers
case there was no fault assigned to the campaign, it’s clear
there was a question as to the line between the ‘genuine’ nature
of celebrity utterances and the brand message.
“Enabling transparency by labelling sponsored messages
will enable celebrity fans to be exposed to the brand message
while being clear on what is brand-related and celebritygenerated content.”
The quickly-changing social media world makes it hard to
predict what changes are coming and how they will happen, but
it promises an intriguing time for both retailers and shoppers
alike, as the UKGVCA’s Johnson makes clear.
“What’s interesting is that some of the things happening
now didn’t exist even 12 to 24 months ago and that’s very
exciting for the months and years to come. There are lots
of changes still to come that we will have to
embrace, but that is no different to when
people invented the TV, telephones and other
things we now take for granted.”
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roundtable
Getting online
E-commerce can provide real business
benefits, but it comes with its own set
of challenges. A recent Retail Systems
roundtable at Tower 42 discussed the
pros and cons of online. The event was
chaired by Mark Lewis, CTO of e-commerce consultancy, Practicology
T
he panel included: Denise Bailey, Give Change Make
Change, delivery & partnerships manager, Cancer
Research UK; Geoff Barraclough, director of strategy,
marketing and propositions, BT Expedite; Richard Braham,
Policy Advisor, BRC; Romain Eude, CTO, My-Wardrobe.com; Dan
Hartveld, director of mobile, Red Ant; Keith Heddle, group sales
and marketing director, Stanley Gibbons; David Roberts, opera-
tions director, Settle; Paul Rodgers, chairman of Vendorcom and
Andrew Thorpe, sales manager e-commerce, Ukash.
ML: The first item on the agenda is about conversion. Cart
abandonment is typically 88 per cent. How do retailers turn
these into sales? What’s happening in consumers’ minds?
DR: I think it’s their own little price comparison game. Perhaps
they are going online and looking at something and then opening
up a new window to find other opinions on that product, or they
might go and see if they could find it cheaper somewhere else.
GB: Yes it’s like walking into a shop, picking something up and
putting it back down again. Our experience is that the major
innovations of the last year in e-commerce are not around user
interface but fulfilment. The biggest shocks are; not having the
delivery cost included in the price quoted or the retailer not being able to deliver to the consumer in the way they want.
AT: Any retailer that holds their delivery charges until you get
past the checkout. They may be the cheapest retailer for example, however when you then go to add the delivery costs it’s
“Cart abandonment is typically 88 per cent. How can retailers turn these into sales?”
roundtable
an additional £7.99 or they then can’t deliver it for two weeks.
Personally that’s where I would tend to drop out of the loop.
ML: Yes I had an experience a few weeks ago on the John
Lewis website. I bought a bed that was ‘in stock’ but when I got
to the checkout I was told it would be six weeks for delivery.
How can it be in stock and take six weeks to get to me?
DH: There’s an argument there about what is true checkout
abandonment. Many shoppers put things in their basket as a
reminder, but that’s actually considered an abandoned checkout,
it doesn’t matter that they’re going to come back to it. Mobile
checkout is less anonymous and the conversion rate is about
15 per cent higher than it would be on the web.
RE: I think it’s also very dependent on the products you’re
selling. It’s different if you’re buying toilet paper or buying a car.
Abandonment is higher if you are buying a car because the odds
of you making a decision right then and there are pretty slim.
GB: With multi-channel retailers, e-commerce is often a separate
domain. The two things our customers have done to improve
that – Aurora Fashions is probably the best example – has been
to introduce 90 minute delivery from store as an option; the
Shutl service. And to open up the store stock to the website.
Before Christmas that increased web sales by 20 per cent.
ML: How many of you on your sites have guest checkout and
whether you think that makes an impact on conversion?
RE: I think the challenge is that people don’t understand what
it means when you say guest checkout. It’s almost like you need
to find a way to tell people they won’t get spam. People think if
they hand over their email they’ve signed a deal with the devil.
DH: Some of the best guest checkouts I’ve seen are through
trusted providers, like Facebook for example. You get the advantage of not having to type in your details but you’re very much
aware of what information you’re actually giving.
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DH: I think it’s ease and convenience. And attitudes to privacy,
younger generations do have a different attitude to privacy
than older generations. They’ve given their Facebook details to
god knows how many people.
ML: I think convenience is very important, but I think the
other thing is relevance. You’re asking for information but the
customer may not understand why you need that.
RE: What’s the number of products you have in your basket,
on average? Are buying one product from one retailer or 65
from a company like Ocado. Are you making the decision within
a span of 30 seconds or does it take 30 minutes or even a week
to decide. What’s the value of the product? Is it high value? All
these things affect cart abandonment.
GB: It’s the difference between a service relationship and a
traditional retail product sale that the customer might buy once
every three months.
DR: But I wonder then if cart abandonment just suggests that
you are moving customers to different channels. So they start
online doing some research but then they move to the shop because they want to open the box, see and touch the product. I
think that’s Geoff’s point about it being a truly integrated channel as a business approach as opposed to somebody fighting for
web and all they’re doing id displacing people in-store.
GB: That’s how it should be, yes. That’s where everyone is trying
to get to but in terms of, not just systems, but organisational
alignment within the business, it’s very hard.
ML: What’s your view around abandonment emails, chasing
customers after they’ve left? Is that effective; is it a good user
experience?
DB: It can be a bit intrusive. I sometimes think: “Why do I have to
explain to you why I didn’t finish my purchase?”
DR: And also I think there’s a bit of outrage there. I know in the
GB: There’s a company called Techlightenment, bought by Expedia, who do social CRM. They were telling me about some tests
around the difference in conversion rates if you have to register
through a retailer’s site or you can go in through Facebook connect. And three to one people prefer to use Facebook connect.
KH: They just see it as a convenient way to register and shop
online. This conversation is all about convenience, making it
easier for the shopper to checkout online.
past I’ve thought: “I didn’t buy from you, how on earth have you
collected my details?” I don’t have to give my name when I walk
in-store, I don’t have to give my email address.
KH: We found three things. One was actually putting stock
availability. If you tell customers there’s only one or two of a
certain product, abandonment drops. The second thing was, if
we followed up when customers were just putting something
in a basket there was margin dilution because we tried to drive
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roundtable
them with a various range of offers and incentives. And thirdly,
when there was a fundamental problem with the transaction,
by following up we got happier customers. There was a drop in
abandonment because they were going to pay for a product
but something happened in the payment process.
RE: Creating scarcity creates a sense of urgency. When you’re
in the supermarket and your bag is full you can walk away from
a purchase because it will still be there the next day. But with
fashion that could be ‘the one’. It’s your size and there’s only so
many in stock so if you walk away you’re going to lose it.
ML: Speaking of real-time, what can retailers do to make
payments quicker and easier online? Often customers register
their card details to speed up the process next time round,
but this can cause problems with PCI DSS compliance.
RB: Retailers just want to sell things, we’re not platform providers. Clearly PCI is a day-to-day issue for retailers, if you mess up
customer data they won’t come back. What that has led to, in
the absence of clarity, is a more risk based approach. There’s
a bit of a commercial race to provide the silver bullet, whereas
with chip and PIN you had everyone working together from
all sectors to benefit everyone, now we have the Visa TIP programme, AMEX around the recognition of AMV, MasterCard are
looking at it and you’ve got Barclaycard’s risk-based approach.
GB: We offer an outsourced service to our e-commerce customers and use Secure Trading for PSP. For store systems we
recommend point-to-point encryption and we have a managed
offer. Having said that, there are some differing views within
the industry. We have some customers who are rigorous about
being PCI compliant and others rather less stringent.
DH: I’ve had experience with retailers who do store payment
card details and it increases the convenience and yes, quite a
lot of customers do use it. From what I remember one retailer
had about 40 or 50 per cent of customers store card details. It
depends on how much they trust the brand.
DR: And it’s usually the repetitive nature, if you’re going to go
back and treat buying from that retailer like a direct debit, it’s
easier for me to allow them to remember my credit card details.
PR: Many retailers don’t actually know their full responsibilities
in this area. And most consumers have no idea what’s happening
to their data. I agree with Richard, there’s some lack of clarity,
particularly in relation to point-to-point encryption, but retailers
have to secure this sort of information. It’s not just ensuring
their customers’ data, it’s ensuring their own brand integrity.
Solutions providers need to know how to support a retailer for
multi-channel payments so retailers can get on with what they
want to do. Lush were just trying to do what they do best, but
they stuffed up on the web design/payments interface.
KH: There have been enough big stories of breaches and yet
consumer confidence in online retailing is not at all dented. Ecommerce departments and marketing departments are now
carrying out tests to see if putting the word ‘secure’ on the
checkout page will we get more people checking out? Is it really
secure? Maybe not, but it’s about getting the consumer to buy
with confidence. Immaterial of what’s actually happening in the
background.
RB: The nature of the problem is that, if you’re a national
retailer and you replace your PIN estate once every four years,
it’s expensive. If you’re looking at online and m-commerce payments, you’ve got new services coming out which are offering
genuine competition. If you invest in big systems that cost a lot
of money, but you’re buying one solution and it doesn’t cover
you in all your other multi-channel areas, then that’s a bad
investment, so you have to wait to invest in the right thing.
ML: There’s lots of challenges to going global, but perhaps we
should start with payments. For example in Germany credit
card use isn’t so high, they do a lot of bank transfers and cash
on delivery through courier companies and the Post Office.
“PCI is a day-to-day issue for retailers.”
RE: We just launched in Norway. We are launching in two countries every three weeks over the next four months. For each it’s
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currencies, the internationalisation of the site, local payments,
local delivery options, local TNCs. As you said Mark, in Germany
they prefer different payment options so you have to find a
provider that supports that. We have one company, Cybersource,
that supports most of it, but then for every country we go for
the biggest second and integrate them. That will cover most
payments and PayPal, it will probably cover about 90 per cent.
ML: So if you’re a UK based e-tailer and you’re thinking about
going international, there’s a number of steps you need to go
through. But how far is far enough?
RE: The key for us was providing an experience that is local for
the consumer, not for us. You could still be taking the payment
in pounds and suffer for currency exchange, that’s your problem as a retailer. The consumer in Norway wants to see the price
inclusive of everything. As a retailer I’m going to ship to Norway
so I’m going to have to pay custom taxes and DHL, but the consumer doesn’t want to know about this. You need to find a way
to deliver what they want that doesn’t break the system.
GB: You need to have local language sites with local payment
and delivery options. That’s doable; the bit that’s hard is faceto-face. Primark is opening stores around Europe and wants a
single payments solution, that’s a real challenge because there’s
very few PSPs out there that can really do that. And there’s no
way of joining up the online payments and face-to-face payments in a best of breed fashion that we’ve found either in the
UK or internationally.
PR: One of the concerns in terms of really making this work
is that we’ve got a fairly nationally based cards and payments
infrastructure. The European Payments Council and European
Central Bank would like to see a Single Euro Payment Area for
cards but, at a fundamental level, this is almost impossible to
achieve because of the national banking infrastructures. We
don’t have a domestic scheme like the Girocard in Germany. It
may be international providers of other services, like Vodafone
or Telefonica – or somebody like that – who will make this work.
ML: On a practical level do you think you need to have different merchant accounts in different countries and perhaps
even local banks in each country?
RE: We had to do that.
DR: But is that because of what Paul was saying earlier? Because
of the ingrained, local banking infrastructure is so separate and
disparate that you can’t find one single solution, therefore the
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response to that is different merchant accounts and banks in
different countries. When you get one single platform that
works across multiple currencies, will that change?
RE: It was both. It was also for optimising the cashflow, because
if everybody goes into one bank account somewhere it’s going
to get exchanged and somebody is going to get a cut that is too
big for us. So you take the key currencies you trade in and you
have local currency accounts there.
AT: At Ukash a lot of our business is from multi cross-countries
transactions. With Ukash you can have the one account and
we trade in 50 countries at the moment and do 15 currencies.
Consumers don’t need to have a bank account, we work with
the payment providers in each of the countries and enable them
to hand over cash to get their Ukash voucher. As retailers you
could have the one bank account, so you sign up for your Ukash
account with that UK bank account, but we’ll do the transactions
for you and in those 15 particular currencies we have a currency
exchange rate. But most of the companies we work with are
outside of the UK, they may be UK based but want to have a
payment network in South America or France and Germany. If
you want to trade in Brazil it’s still cash that they want to deal
with but they still want to be able to shop online and buy online.
GB: So people buy a voucher that they can then spend online?
AT: Yes. They go straight into their network provider, hand over
the cash and can then go onto to any of our e-commerce retailer partners’ sites and can make purchases. There’s no chargebacks whatsoever after the voucher is validated. For merchants
that are looking at payment networks outside of the UK, but
still don’t want to have the bank accounts in those countries, it’s
giving them that ability to trade.
ML: What are your thoughts on the progression of rolling out
from the UK to other countries? Where do you go from here?
RB: I think payments, in terms of cross-border, is actually
quite well advanced. Actually there are a lot of other barriers
to internationalisation that are a lot worse. Natural barriers
like language, or things like you wouldn’t deliver a wardrobe to
Greece because it doesn’t make sense financially. If you just look
at Europe, and obviously there’s a lot beyond Europe, you’ve got
27 different legal regimes, tax regimes and consumer regimes.
When you’re told you can’t buy something because the retailer
won’t accept the card – well then that can be resolved. But if
you’re faced with a legislative difference then that is a much
bigger barrier to progress.
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roundtable
ML: We spoke earlier about the benefits of showing the delivery cost as early as possible. But if you don’t know that the
person is going to want it delivered to Greece at the point at
which it’s in the basket, which delivery cost do you show?
RE: You make some general assumptions, if you don’t know the
person, based on their IP. You try to get preferences early on.
Ask them to select their language and prompt them to make
choices and from that you try to reduce the choices they have
to make down from 27 to maybe one or two.
DH: It’s always much better to focus that user journey on the
majority than your educators. It’s so easy to end up with that
user journey accounting for all these educators, allowing them
to change it if they need to, but actually make assumptions and
you’ll find it caters for 85-90 per cent of people and your user
journey is much better because of it. Increased retention and
increased conversion.
ML: It’s obviously a very hot topic, but the first thing that
springs to mind is; is social media more about customer
engagement and customer service than it is about actually
transacting commerce?
KH: I think social media is a bandwagon. I think it’s fine in an
informal scenario but when it comes to actually transacting I
don’t think it works. All the studies that have been done don’t
prove a correlation between social media and sales. The Old
Spice ads that are now back on TV with the guy on the horse,
that was one of the most successful viral videos ever. Did it affect Old Spice sales in the US? Not a bit. And i think that
there may be retailers who can use social media because
retailers are different, but there’s been no link between social
media and transactions. We got swept up in the statistics
of how many ‘likes’ we were getting and didn’t ask: ‘Where’s
the money?’
DH: There are two such big elements as well. There’s the social
media hype, the ‘let’s go viral’ thinking. And I attribute that to
the advertising world, it’s just another form of marketing and it
should really be seen as anything else. It’s just that if you’re clever about it you can capitalise on that and not spend anywhere
near as much as you would on a main advertising campaign. But
then there’s the other element, I think some people see it as
the dark art of social media and it really isn’t. It’s simply allowing
people to ‘like’ your products on Facebook, allowing them to talk
about your products and creating convenient channels for them
to engage with you.
RB: Well that’s what is coming out at the moment, you need to
use it for the right thing. The key thing is that the smart guys
aren’t trying to use social media to flog stuff. It’s customer
service, that’s what social media is really about right now. Some
people like that. Some people see it as an intrusion. Where they
are getting real value out of it are the instant, real-time vouchers, couponing and discounting. That’s where it’s really coming
into its own, and for quick services as well. One of my colleagues
tweeted: ‘Off milk nearly ruined my breakfast’ and they got a
tweet back with a voucher for 20p off their next pint from one
of the milk companies.
ML: So what can retailers do to develop and sustain a good
m-commerce strategy? I am just wondering does anyone here
think there is still a role for the app, as opposed to a mobile
optimised site?
DH: Again it’s a case of every retailer is different and there isn’t
a one size fits all. When it comes to apps your big advantages
are things like, the user experience is much better. Your browsing process is so compressed compared to being on a site that
you actually get to where you want to be much quicker. But you
have the big problems of proprietary platforms and you can’t
access your entire audience. If you have repetitive custom, the
app is almost always the way to go.
DB: As you said it depends on what you’re actually selling
and what the objective of what the actual use of social media
is. With ‘Give Change, Make Change’ we’ve worked with BrandsAlley in the UK and they’ve successfully launched their Facebook
page. What they ultimately want to do is convert those
people who are ‘likes’ on Facebook into registered users and
therefore customers. And what they’ve done is give people
who Facebook ‘liked’ them a 24 hour preview of their flash
sales, which is directly relevant to their business so it has
worked incredibly well for them. They’ve also got a TV
channel as well, which is again showcasing the product online
to encourage customers.
RE: And it depends on the business as well, because apps you
can review stuff, you can push notifications. We sell luxury clothing, but we’re not going to install an app to do that. But an app
that pushes the latest trends every day to our customers, that
becomes more interesting. And then with the app you still have
the m-commerce side of it.
GB: Most of the retailers we deal with have fairly small teams
and the same promotion, same text, has to be authorised to go
anywhere otherwise there’s going to be trouble. We use html
for pretty much everything we do, whether for mobile websites
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or in-store apps on an iPad, I think the area that may be good
for an app is loyalty. So that rather than carrying a card in your
wallet it becomes an app on your phone. But then that’s not
really going to work until we get NFC.
DH: One of the things we found with Topshop was actually
that if you’re clever about it, using the same information and
product data that’s on the site is not too difficult, as long as you
understand the constraints that are there. They don’t have any
loyalty card systems at all but the app itself begins to generate its own kind of loyalty in a way because it uses consumer
engagement tools, it uses things like London Fashion Week
streaming. It creates a kind of community between people using
the app and keeps people on there.
PR: I think some websites could warrant their own tablet optimised site because they can be much more feature rich. If you
go onto Facebook on an iPad, it’s just presented so much better.
“Omni-channel underpins multi-channel retailing”
DH: It depends what the key brand objectives are. One of the
interesting things about the iPad app is that sales conversion is
actually higher than it is on mobile and the web, but there’s a
much smaller user base. We’ve worked with Burberry to develop
an app for iPad users, but that was totally the right thing for
them to do because their market is in exactly that space at the
moment, they’re a luxury retailer.
the excellent point that the guy from Coca-Cola made: ‘We are
here to sell more stuff, to more people, more often, for more
money. How do we do that?’ Is it an app? And if so, why? Go
away and answer those questions. That is fundamental to what
we do, it’s not so much about who we prioritise.
tional, cross-channels, social media – what is the key win for
this year to focus on?
GB: In terms of what our customers are asking us about,
international is a clear leader. They are saying we want to do
international development, stores, websites whatever – how
can you help us?
DB: I’m coming from a different perspective in that I’m quite
DR: Yes, because they want more people and they hope they’ve
new to e-commerce. I’ve been with the innovation team for
about 18 months working on projects for Cancer Research UK.
I’ve been to lots of conferences and spoken to lots of people
about what e-commerce is and one thing I’ve found is that
people forget that we’re all customers as well. I think that’s
something we should remember. To me a brand is a brand and I
expect the same level of service no matter what channel I’m in.
got more money than the people here. And in 20 years time we
could all be shopping through the equivalent of a Nintendo Wii,
because that’s what we’ll all be using to exercise, so we’ll shop
through that and virtually try on clothes. Or we could order it, it
arrives the same day and then we send it back.
ML: If you were going to prioritise between mobile, interna-
RB: That’s well put, but to be slightly gloomier about retailing
conditions at the moment, it’s just about surviving and being
there. So as a retailer I need to be thinking how to I attract people. There needs to be better customer service to breed loyalty
and all channels need to be used to get to people, depending on
what kind of retailer I am.
KH: You quite often get furious rows developing in board rooms
about having an app or a Facebook page. I just strip it back to
DH: That’s new challenges coming in and you can slice channels
any way you like and you can have thousands of them, the key
is not about catering for any one specific channel, it’s about
creating an infrastructure and strategies that just deal with all
channels generally.
PR: That’s what we are defining as omni-channel. Omni-channel
is the ability to service multi-channel properly; omni-channel
should not be misrepresented as a development in the retail to
consumer space, it’s what underpins it multi-channel retailing
and I think that’s really powerful.
feature social networks
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Social skills
The growth of social media and social
networks has been phenomenal over
the last five years. Graham Buck asks;
how have retailers responded and
which have been slow to react?
T
he unlikely spectacle earlier this year of Katie Price
tweeting her thought on the Eurozone’s debt problems
was, unsurprisingly, a spoof but also a historic moment.
What turned out to be an advert for a chocolate bar got a full
investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority; marking
it the first time that the UK watchdog had issued a ruling on
marketing through Twitter.
It was an inevitable development given that retailers and retail
brands, having witnessed the inexorable rise of social media and
networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, want a piece
of the action in promoting their goods and services.
The development has been fuelled by the rapid adoption
of smartphones with more than half of the UK population
owning a device, of which just over 50 per cent are Android,
around 30 per cent iPhones and the remainder Blackberries.
As Paul Broome, chief technology officer at Torex observes: “A
Facebook and Twitter account is now a routine part of life for
many people, while the e-mail is a declining medium, generally
shunned by anyone aged under 35.”
Which retailers have jumped on this new wave and are cresting
it? Leading the way is US fashion and beauty products label
Victoria’s Secret, which through a mix of information, videos,
photos and special offers on Facebook has established itself as
the site’s most-liked retail brand with over 15 million users.
Flying the Facebook flag for Europe is Germany’s sports clothing giant Adidas, which has 11 million followers, says Ambeshwar
Nath, assistant vice president of retail, CPG andlogistics for
Europe at Infosys.“The company listens to conversations taking
place on the networks, monitors what’s happening and takes
all the findings into account when launching a new product,” he
reports. It has successfully developed Facebook into a communication channel, so it has more than just a presence – it actively
engages with consumers.”
The advantages of networking sites for retailers are obvious.
They provide insight into their customers’ likes and dislikes,
which products are trending and those being discussed in
real-time. Close monitoring of these conversations enables
companies to respond to customers’ needs both in-store and
onlineand also improve sales and profits.
Sluggish response
Despite this, many have been slow to respond. According to
Simon Robinson, senior director of marketing and alliance EMEA
at cross-channel marketing group Responsys, many are only
starting to wake up to the opportunities offered by social
media. The group’s research suggests that even now only 23 of
the top 50 online retailers include a social media component in
their email marketing campaigns.
“The collaborative nature of social media is a game changer
for retailers, with consumers scrambling for access to the latest
information on products, discounts and offers,” adds Robinson.
“To target socially-engaged customers, brands need to develop
the ability to deliver personalised communications in real-time
and build accurate customer profiles based on the content
social networks feature
that followers engage with, the sentiment of their
postings and their network.
“Once these profiles have been built, retailers
can build relevant and targeted social campaigns
that are designed to increase brand advocacy and
improve sales conversions.”
American companies probably have a more
advanced social networks strategy than their
European counterparts, suggests Richard
Britton, managing director of cloud integration
CloudSense.“The old adage that the US is 18
months ahead of Europe in new trends and
fashions still holds true,” he comments. Social
media monitoring and analysis services such
as Crimson Hexagon and Radian 6 have proved
effective in helping US firms fine-tune their social
media strategies.
Infosys’ Nath cites the example of Black Friday in
the US; the day which immediately follows Thanksgiving celebrations and is a major shopping event
for the American consumer. He says that retailers
are increasingly following social network discussions
in the weeks leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday
to anticipate exactly where demand will fall. “Black
Friday 2011 saw online sales 24.3 per cent up on
2010, while 14.5 per cent of Amazon’s total traffic
was derived from social network sites,” he adds.
IBM reported that discussion volumes on social
media sites ahead of the big day was 110 per cent
up on a year earlier, as consumers shared tips on
how to avoid the rush and topics ranging from
items likely to be out of stock, waiting times and
parking.
Despite the US’s clear lead overall the UK probably
has the edge regarding retailers’ insights into
interactions and key performance indicators (KPIs), says Britton.
He also believes that despite exceptions such as Victoria’s
Secret, fashion retailers have been surprisingly slow in adopting
new technologies to develop the business opportunities being
opened up by social media. “Burberry is one of the few that
has made good progress towards becoming a cross-channel,
fully-enabled business and refining its social offering – although
some others have got off to a good start.”
But Torex’s Broome submits several other contenders.
“Republic is our company’s own poster child – it’s a dynamic
brand that equips its stores with cameras so that customers can
post photos of themselves modelling the fashions on Facebook,”
he says. “It also uses the social media to send out offers to
users.Levi’s is another good example while ASOS is adept at
converting Facebook and Twitter interest into sales.”
Aspirational brands are also making an impact. Infosys’ Nath
cites the example of Nestlé’s Nespresso, whose Director’s Cut
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competition invited consumers to re-edit its commercial to win
VIP passes to the Cannes film festival. Links took social channel
users to the Nespresso website and contestants could share
their version of the commercial with others.
Further afield book retailer Flipkart has been able to develop
into India’s biggest e-commerce business, largely through adept
use of social media to provide good customer service such as
regular updates on delivery. “Flipkart has developed a $125
million turnover in just five years and offers a great example of
how to build consumer trust without necessarily having a strong
supporting brand,” says Nath.
A holistic response
One issue on which there is common agreement is that retailers
cannot benefit from social media platforms in isolation. As
Wayne Usie, senior vice president of retail at JDA Software
observes, the companies that succeed in leveraging their
potential will be those adopting a holistic approach.
“Traditionally it was television and radio advertising that
caught consumers’ attention, persuading them to enter the
store,” he notes. “Today there are some six separate and
distinct means for consumers to be made aware of brands,
so companies must plan and develop strategy carefully. It’s a
big challenge!”
It entails judging the relative importance and effectiveness
of each channel. For example, Cloudsense’s Britton believes that
email campaigns are rapidly waning in their effectiveness as
social networks go from strength to strength.
“Smart retailers aren’t just looking at social networks as
a stand-alone channel, but linking them with others such
as mobiles and more traditional media,” adds Nath. Tesco’s
response includes its recent tie-up with Foodie.fm, dubbed
“Facebook for groceries” but also available as iPhone, Android
and Nokia applications. Users can exchange recipes and
cooking tips and also select the ingredients required for a
particular dish, which can then be ordered and delivered from
the supermarket.
Retailers are also assessing the potential of Pintrest, described
as an “online pin board” that enables users to create their own
interest areas – not least because the site is already generating
almost as much interest as Facebook and Twitter. Reports also
suggest that the average Pintrest user spends 89 minutes on
the site per month, against 21 minutes for Twitter.
The message for retailers appears to be of not putting
too many eggs in one basket – or keeping new projects fairly
small-scale and not overcommitting to any one social channel.
“Companies will be compelled to change and embrace social
networks more,” says Britton. “At the moment we’re just seeing
the tip of the iceberg and relatively few companies do it well.
“But online purchasing is driving a steadily larger share of the
wallet – which means there will be casualties among those that
are slow to respond.”
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Changing conditions
In the UK we’re famous for complaining about our unpredictable weather. But
that universal talking point can have a serious knock-on affect on business
continuity in the retail industry. Dave Adams investigates
T
here is a widespread feeling that by now we ought to
be used to the capricious British weather. It’s true that
we are particularly bad at coping with snow, but snow is
unusual and highly unpredictable; it’s very hard to say if you’re
about to get a light dusting or an Arctic blizzard, or exactly
where it will fall. Surely unexpected short term blips, such as the
summer-like conditions experienced in October 2011 or March
2012, should be easier to manage?
Some retailers blame the weather too often, according to the
KPMG/Synovate Retail Think Tank (RTT), which published a white
paper on the subject in November 2011. The panel suggested
that improved forecasting and risk management would help to
reduce its impact.
Helen Dickinson, head of retail at KPMG, said at the time that
while there would always be anomalies, at a market level weather
has little effect on overall retail sales. “The best retailers are
prepared for the unexpected... getting ... valuable insight from
the mountains of data that they collect...” she said. “Their
suppliers, logistics arrangements and store staff are sufficiently
flexible to respond to fast moving conditions in an efficient and
reliable way.”
Out of stock
But let’s give the retailers a bit of a break. Sometimes the
weather really does play nasty tricks. Warm weather in March
boosted sales by 1.3 per cent (according to the BRC), while poor
weather over the Easter weekend resulted in a 12.5 per cent
drop in High Street footfall compared to Easter 2011 (according
to Springboard). In April 2012 Marks and Spencer admitted it
had run out of stock in some best-selling lines of womenswear
during the first few weeks of the year, surprised by a cold spell
in February during which it could have sold three times as many
items of knitwear as it had in stock.
Tim Morris, European managing director at Planalytics,
which crunches year on year sales and weather data to predict
consumer demand down to sub-category level, says he has
spent years trying to find a product the sales of which are not
affected by weather. He thinks floor tiles may be the only answer.
But Morris believes that while many retailers understand what
events like the 2010/2011 snows can mean for the business,
they lack a deep understanding of how longer term trends in
the weather affect consumer behaviour. Without taking into
account the influence the weather has had they may come to
business continuity feature
incorrect conclusions about why a product line sells poorly in a
given period, for example.
“I don’t think retailers recognise the gravity of the potential
impact of weather on their businesses, because they haven’t
tried to measure it,” he says. “We don’t sell weather forecasts,
we sell a statistical probability forecast which will give you a
week by week, location by location view of positive or negative
effects of the weather on sales versus previous seasons for any
product category, with 75 per cent accuracy, providing a stable
platform for planning.”
Weather forecasting has also improved. “If you take the
weather today and you say that in five days it’s going to be
absolutely the same you’ve got about a 25 per cent chance of
being right,” says John Sewell, principal at consultancy Crimson
& Co. “For a long time the five day forecast success rate wasn’t
much better than that. Now it’s up to more like 50 or 60 per
cent accurate.”
The big food retailers, with complex supply chains, short
product lifetimes and fast replenishment cycles have, out of
necessity, always been leaders in this field. Lee Gill, vice-president
for retail at JDA, recalls how changes in the weather would
force dramatic shifts in buying behaviour when he worked in
merchandise planning at M&S. “I can remember in our salad
department going from one week, when we had mild weather
to hot weather the next – a change from 18 degrees to 28
degrees – and sales in some lines increased by 50 per cent.”
At Sainsbury’s store and product forecasting were centralised
in 2000 and the retailer has been compiling and analysing
detailed data on weather and its effect on buying behaviours
ever since, says David Bailey, data analyst at Sainsbury’s. “Sales
and demand information has been collected and stored at
weather region/SKU level,” he says. “This enables us to better
predict customer buying habits if those scenarios occur in
future. Weather forecasts received from our weather data
provider give us a forecast up to 14 days ahead, giving us more
time in the decision making process and to provide orders to
suppliers.”
He also notes the importance of weather forecasts running
six to ten days ahead becoming more accurate. These longer
range weather forecasts meant Sainsbury’s had advance
warning of the October 2011 and March 2012 warm spells.
Although it did not have historical data for buying behaviour
during similar events in those specific months, it did have
data for similar conditions in April, May, June, July, August and
September. “Using this data we were able to come to a course of
action to anticipate the changes in customer buying habits.”
Quick reaction
Other types of retailers may find it very difficult to react quickly
to changing conditions. Lead times from suppliers may be much
longer for some seasonal goods, such as garden furniture
manufactured in Asia, which is in transit for weeks. Tim Morris
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says it is incredible that a retailer would order these sorts of
goods without trying to gain a clearer understanding of weather
patterns and their effects.
But retailers may also find themselves with new commercial
opportunities. Sarah Morris, head of merchandising operations
at John Lewis, says the Partnership has been trying to keep
developing its replenishment system to make it easier to react
quickly and effectively to changes in demand. “We keep an
accurate history so that sales patterns can be understood and
correctly interpreted,” she says. “For example, we have learned
that three consecutive mornings when the temperature is under
seven degrees centigrade cause customers to buy hats, gloves
and scarves. We know that with hot weather our customers
prefer to be outside and not in a department store but summer
clothing and outdoor products tend to spike the following week.”
For a clothing retailer, says Charlotte Kula-Przezwankski, global
enterprise practice lead at Torex, who used to work for Next,
collaboration with suppliers is essential. She can recall suppliers
manufacturing extra shorts at short notice during a hot
summer, for example.
“I used to collaborate with suppliers on a weekly basis,”
she says Kula-Przezwankski. “When I look at the type of
merchandising and demand forecasting tools there are now,
with remote access and easy access to information, it’s a lot
easier to share that information with the supply base than if
you’re just using something like Excel.”
The only other thing a retailer can do to get out of a
weather-created mess is use pricing and marketing to push
stock out through bricks and mortar and online sales channels. A
well-integrated multichannel strategy, offering flexible ordering
and delivery options could be crucial. Email or mobile voucher
or coupon campaigns might be useful, as could using social
networks to promote special offers on goods that haven’t sold
well because of the weather. Kula-Przezwankski. She also praises
Mothercare for using social networking and email to say to
customers before the Easter weekend that it looked as if the
weather might not be bad, so perhaps they might be interested
in buying some new toys for the kids? “We’re in our infancy of
how we utilise those types of forums,” she says. “I think there’s a
great opportunity.”
With all of these issues, says Lee Gill: “It all comes down to
having a responsive supply chain. You need good forecasting
tools, but you must have a responsive supply chain so you have
the ability to react and to be able to see what’s held in the
stores and warehouses.”
Without that visibility and flexibility the consequences can be
dangerous. “When I worked for a retailer we used to joke about
how if results were bad we’d have to get a weather-related
excuse ready,” says Kula-Przezwankski. “But I think retailers are
realising that the consumer doesn’t care about the excuses.
They just want what they want, when they want it. And if you
can’t give them that, somebody else will.”
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roundtable
Matching the pace
The payments space is changing at an
unprecedented rate, how can retailers
keep up with this evolving industry?
A panel of experts discussed the issues at a Retail Systems roundtable in
March. The event was chaired by Paul
Rodgers, chairman of Vendorcom
T
he panel included: Rob Abington, senior director, client
services, Polo Ralph Lauren; Rob Brown, group EPoS
systems manager, Clinton Cards; Andy Chalklin, IT
director, Pret-a-Manger; Birte Fynes, analyst, Berry Bros & Rudd
Ltd; Rebecca Hendren, programme manager, customer systems,
World Duty Free Group; Rick Mordeci, senior director, global
retail systems, Polo Ralph Lauren; Ian Newton, CIO, Brighthouse;
Raja Ray, solutions director, VeriFone and John Wheeler, director,
Roys of Wroxham Ltd.
PR: I want to establish what the current viewpoint is on three
areas, and I think they’re three distinct areas – contactless,
NFC, and mobile payments. Where do you think we are, where
do you think we’re going to, where do you think the problems
are? So if we begin with contactless – where are we in the UK
with contactless cards and payments?
AC:To be honest it’s a fairly unreliable process, mainly because
the technology doesn’t quite match the ambition. But when it
works it’s a good, smooth user experience. And with the size of
the limit increasing to £20 pounds this year, I think this represents a significant advantage for us. It will make a big difference
in wait times and we might get 20 per cent more transactions
through a store. The evolution of these technologies has come
quite a long way and we were a little early in our adoption. Now
might be the right time for people whose average transaction
sizes are in that sweet spot. The big challenge will be not to cannibalise the cash market but the credit and debit card market.
RB: Are all those challenges front of house would you say?
AC: Yes, this is front of house. It’s the reliability of the units,
we’ve got the secure devices on the tills and we’ve got the addons that sit in front of the customer. I don’t particularly blame
them, but some of our GMs hide them behind the brownies,
because they don’t want to deal with customer complaints. We
also have challenges because the design aspects of our counters
come before making them work as a retail platform. If I want
to keep the croissants hot, that’s counterproductive to keeping
the payment devices cool. We are always going to come second
to giving the right product to the customer at the right time.
“Contactless is a fairly unreliable process; mainly because the technology doesn’t quite match the ambition.”
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RH: Contactless isn’t an issue for us at the moment, the limit
would have to be a lot higher for us to consider implementing it.
We are about to trial some mobile selling technology which will
deploy in the front of house, perfume area. Also we do quite
a lot of promotional events in-store. A mobile point-of-sale
means customers don’t have to queue up to make that impulse
purchase. So we’re looking at whether or not we can improve
sales through those kind of technologies, rather than contactless. For us it’s about what’s coming in mobile and e-wallet
technology.
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RB: It’s the loyalty aspect from our point of view. The value
added service you can get from a mobile phone far outweighs
a contactless card. Things like couponing and CRM data are very
valuable for any business. The problem is that this is still a long
way away. The phones aren’t there at the moment, the mobile
phone operators don’t seem to be doing enough, the e-wallet
isn’t a resounding success at the moment – okay it’s only in its
early stages – but Google have had their problems with security.
Now the Visa solution is coming out, no-one knows how good
that’s going to be, people like PayPal are backing out of NFC and
MasterCard don’t seem to be doing anything.
PR: Rob you’ve said you’re really trying to pioneer this kind of
technology and want to be at the forefront of it. What’s your
experience in-store at the moment?
RB: We do struggle to get customers through the point-of-sale
fast enough. Anyone who’s been into a Clinton Cards at peak
times during the holidays knows how long you have to queue to
buy a card. It’s something that we’ve been trying to battle for
a long time. NFC or contactless was seen as the way to combat
this, but it’s not taken off as quickly as people would have liked.
The cards are out there now and there’s a lot more of them,
but the uptake just isn’t as good as it should be. This year so far
we’ve taken about 15,000 contactless transactions.
PR: Contactless uptake is still very low, it’s maybe around one
or two per cent of transactions in the UK. The other interesting statistic is that when McDonald’s went live in May last year,
they’ve now grown to account for about 50 per cent of the
total UK contactless transactions. So a good story for McDonald’s, but a really bad story in terms of the other all uptake
of contactless.
IN: Well, is it that customers don’t want it? Or is it that they still
don’t know about it?
JW: It took a few years to get chip and PIN established and that
had stable technology behind it. What we’re talking about here is
unstable technology that’s changing all the time. Retailers don’t
want to invest in it because it’s changing, customers don’t understand it and very few of them have actually got it. So there
needs to be mass-market push somewhere and I don’t think it
will come from retailers. It should come from the Visa and MasterCard type organisations because that would give it ubiquity.
IN: I started looking at NFC seven, maybe eight years ago with
Skidata in the car parking industry. It still seems almost like a
solution that’s bouncing around looking for a problem. The big
stopper was that you had to have more than one use for it to
get the customer to buy in. If you think about paying with your
phone, by the time you’ve unlocked it, opened the app, gone
into Google Wallet, selected the card – you may as well just get
your card out of your wallet.
AC: Or pay with cash. I absolutely agree, we see huge use in
Hong Kong, it’s absolutely ubiquitous over there, if you don’t
accept it you may as well shut your doors. I think that where
you’ve got multi-use NFC could be successful. If Oyster worked
in shops and not just the tubes, Londoners might have taken
that on, that might have been something worthwhile.
RB: We have to tell all our customers: ‘Did you know you can pay
with contactless’. And they all say: ‘What’s contactless?’ Those
Barclaycard ads have done nothing for the industry. And for
Clinton Cards, we need that takeoff in order to benefit from it.
AC: McDonald’s had an enormous push in-store, it was at their
point-of-sale, you could not fail to spot that they had gone
contactless. What I haven’t been able to find out yet was what
the impact was on their original split, whether they are taking
less cash, or whether it’s cannibalisation of card transactions.
IN: Well that was always the vision for the Olympics. You could
go online and buy a single ticket for your car parking, your train
and your tube. Then you pitched up at the Olympic Village and
swiped it to get in and it told you what seat you were in etc.
That was eight years ago and it hasn’t moved forward since.
PR: So how can any retailer commit capital to this when the
technology is still seen as unstable?
RH: One of the biggest challenges for us is that we have a hugely
PR: So moderate success for contactless, now what about
NFC. What opportunities does that release?
global customer base, so a common standard doesn’t seem to
be out there or even on the agenda. Just to have a solution that
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roundtable
accommodates all the different payment varieties is going to be
extremely challenging for us. Until things consolidate and standardise it’s very difficult to know absolutely the right direction.
RM: With NFC the size of the transaction means it’s not going
to work for us right now. Mobile we’re constantly looking at, but
what are we going to use it for? What is it we’re really trying to
accomplish here? Is it more around ergonomics of the cash wrap
and how we flow track it, or is it really about mobile technology?
of data a day and you’ve got to store it, pay for it etc. The
decisions you make have knock-ons within that transaction
environment. Just replacing the existing devices for the merged
contactless ones is a large decision. If I can cannibalise my credit
card transactions, great. But if I cannibalise cash then I’ve shot
myself in the foot.
AC: That’s the sort of thing I’m thinking of in terms of where
RR: With NFC and mobile phones, who owns that customer?
We’re talking to a lot of organisations who all want to get involved
but they all seem to want to own the customer. The obvious ones
are the mobile network operators who we see, not only in the UK
but other countries, driving NFC. The reason is obvious; they have
the relationship with the customer, they can facilitate that instrument being deployed onto the phone. The thing that they don’t
always get is the acceptance at point-of-sale.
mobile goes for us. And that’s where we start to tie in some of
the loyalty aspects as well.
JW: I would agree that the mobile phone operators have got the
AC: Have you thought about a mobile Click & Collect concept?
RM: I think we do that more on our dotcom site.
IN: Everybody likes shopping, what they don’t like is queuing and
paying and lugging it home. I think you’ll see a shift where people
go out to shop, buy it with their phone by scanning a tag and
then have it delivered. M-payments will probably move quicker
because they’re software based rather than in-store. The cost
of implementing new hardware to 200-300 stores is very high.
RR: The interesting thing for me here is that we talk about mobile, but mobile means different things to different people. For
me mobile is about increasing the interaction with the customer
and we’re all talking about slightly different technologies for
doing that. NFC does some of that, as does mobile point-of-sale.
There are some quick wins for retailers there, like queue busting,
and I think the business case for that is quite compelling.
best place because the customer will agree with them that they
own the transaction. But as retailers the transaction is between
the customer and ourselves and the services they’re buying
from us and i can’t see us surrendering that lightly.
RR: So the pitch from a mobile phone operator may be: ‘I have
tens of millions of subscribers; we can drive business into your
store.’ But clearly what follows on from that is that they’ve
got to form a relationship with you, some kind of commercial
arrangement.
PR: Is there actually demand from retailers or consumers
around mobile payments? Should we be taking the payment
terminal out of the hands of the retailer and placing it in the
hands of the consumer?
JW: It’s also relatively straight forward to interface it with existing retail systems. It’s something retailers are willing to invest in
because it’s not buying new point-of-sale systems. You can use
existing systems, as long as you can reconcile it.
IN: I think if you’re talking 10 years from now then quite
RA: If you order something online is that an online transaction
RB: It’s a transitional phase, I think you have to go through
or does the transaction belong to the store that you pick it
up from? And that store might be acquiring through a French
bank but you bought the item in the UK. How do you recognise
that revenue? We need one acquirer so we can tie the mobile
environment to the bricks and mortar.
what we’re going through now to get to that point. To jump
from where we are to what Paul’s suggesting, it’s too big a leap.
Consumers are scared of new technology. If you mention to
someone that they can pay with their phone they’re very wary.
And retailer has got to be comfortable with not owning that
chip and PIN terminal, they’ve got to be confident in the fact
that what the customer has in their hand is secure.
AC: Which technology provider can do that for us? There are
many platforms out there, it’s very much an ergonomic design
issue as to what you choose. How to push back information is
a much bigger discussion because you could capture terabytes
possibly. Right now the number five use for a mobile is actually
making a call. Just think about what people do on mobile phones
now and go back 10 years and think what mobiles were then.
RR: I think we’re saying this because right now the mobile phone
is the most ubiquitous platform we can envisage. Mobile phones
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will be used as a way of transacting in-store, full stop. Whether
it happens in two years, three years or 10 years. The issues are
ones of ubiquity and trust. As a consumer we want to be able to
go into any store and use our phone to pay. To do that you need
standards behind it. It’s coming down to the Googles and the
mobile phone operators of the world and, dare I say it, not the
financial institutions to drive this forward.
RM: Obviously our biggest worry is a breach of some kind,
PR: I just want to take things into the security arena for a
moment. Retailers are wrestling with the whole security issue.
Is that around EMV? Is it around estate management? Or PCI
and payment security?
RB: PCI is the main problem for us as well. We’re finding it
RM: For us, we’re now going out and getting terminals that
encrypt at the head. We want to move that liability back to the
acquirer, we don’t even have the keys any more. They encrypt it
and send me back a token. But even though you’re encrypting
the card you still have liability if you’re holding the keys. It’s a
huge concern globally for us as we continue to grow. So when
you get into wireless or mobile payments we have to ask how
that all ties in with payment security, particularly PCI.
RA: And the customer experience is affected. For example
at the moment you go into a German store and you have one
terminal for your credit card, if you’re doing a gift card it’s a
separate terminal, if you’re doing tax free it’s a separate
terminal. And the Central Treasury function have got 13 acquirers coming back and how do i reconcile this. It’s a real challenge
for retailers.
RS
because there’s huge costs associated with that breach and the
brand itself is damaged. Never mind what you have to pay to the
acquirers, replace all their cards and the fact that you have to
disclose that you’ve been breached, it’s the damage to the name
of the company, your reputation that’s the biggest worry. And
from a shareholders perspective what would that mean.
quite a challenge because we’ve got to install point-to-point
encryption; it’s something that still needs to be done. As far as
I’m aware, we can’t currently get the customer to hold the keys
so it has to be done within our own infrastructure. However
you’ve still got liability there and you’re relying on the third
party hosting it for you to be PCI compliant. If they’re not it still
comes back to you. And it’s very expensive to do. That’s one
of the reasons retailers aren’t taking it up as quickly as they’d
like to. In many cases the acquirers are now pushing retailers to
become compliant.
BF: We’re going to go the tokenisation way to push the liability
away from us because, PCI-wise, we don’t have the capacity to
have it in-house. We only have a very small IT department so for
us to become PCI compliant and store credit cards in-house we
would need one fulltime person just to deal with that.
RM: The bank doesn’t want to take on liability, that’s the way I
see it. Those cards should be encrypted so that the banks are
the only ones that have the key, instead they’re pushing it back
on the merchant and that’s the easiest solution.
RH: I think, for me, it’s end-to-end encrypted solutions versus
where is the risk, what does it look like, how can I push it down?
Because it is all about risk ultimately and if you can reduce the
risk massively, significantly then why would you make this huge
investment in moving technology?
RM: It is absolutely. Every year whenever we come back for our
PCI certification the rules change. Now with the new laws coming
in, the information has to be encrypted at the wire. If we have
to keep on chasing it at some point we’ll say: ‘Let’s just get rid
of it’.
JW: Roy’s are not doing very much in this area because it’s all
moving very fast and we’re not big enough to invest a lot of
money in things that will be obsolete in a year’s time.
“Retailers want to push PCI liability back to acquirers.”
PR: Who do retailers get the most help from, is the acquirer or
is it the QSA?
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roundtable
IN: There’s an inconsistent level of information given out by
JW: It’s a real case of more questions than answers at the
both of them. Because the rules of PCI are so often open to
interpretation, it’s sometimes even impossible to get QSAs from
the same company to agree on what is and isn’t in scope.
moment, isn’t it? I would say that when the public have got
a widely accepted, widely available service in front of them –
whether that be contactless or mobile or something else – then
as retailers we will take advantage of it. At the moment our
customers just aren’t there, because they can still come into
our stores and pay as they want to and we can manage that
reasonably well.
PR: So how do we take this forward? We’ve said that there’s
a problem but what’s the solution? Are you looking to your
acquirer or your payment solution provider to take it all away?
IN: Again, there’s a level of inconsistency between card issuers
when it comes to PCI. Visa tend to issue a fixed fine whereas
MasterCard also try to recover the cost of fraudulent transactions. Also the level of the fine is often the same, whether
you’re a multi-billion turnover retailer or a relatively small one.
PR: Could that ultimately force retailers not to accept
mainstream card scheme cards?
AC: In a few years that could well happen if you had software
solution that allows you to integrate with a lot of the web
payment technologies. MasterCard is a fraction of my business
in the UK, but they’re the ones that give me the most hassle.
Once we have options people will start to look at the numbers,
they’ll look at the cost and start breaking it down.
RR: I think we recognise that change is afoot, we’re talking less
about Visa and MasterCard, we’re talking more about Google.
There’s a recognition that there’s different solution sets and
services that need to be addressed. And we, as I suspect do a
lot of retailers, need to adjust to that. We’re talking about NFC
and mobile, these things have a long gestation period. So do you
take action now? Do you take action later? How much do you
start planning for this now, and if not are you going to be left
behind? So what we’re trying to do is to organise ourselves in
such a way so that we can deliver things flexibly in the future,
understanding that what might come along could be very
different. What we’re seeing at the moment is that the touch
points in the industry are changing quite dramatically, it’s not
just going to be the acquirers and the card schemes; the payments space is going to change.
AC: It’s going to happen because I think the Googles and the
economy softwares will catch up and will take over.
PR: What about Facebook? With Facebook credits we’re already
seeing that, but is it going to be a reality in the offline world?
RR: I don’t think you’ll be able to use an online social media
credit system to buy everywhere but you will start to see a link
up with certain retailers. If you’re talking about 10 year’s time
these things might start to become attractive, especially if one
becomes dominant. Will that be Google? It might be Facebook, it
might be some other “currency”.
AC: The ambition for us is to understand the transaction the
customer makes irrespective of the store they make it in or
the method of payment. At the moment the global payment
industry, the international acquisition, all those things make that
virtually impossible. I could throw money at the problem but
I don’t have that unique identification of each person. Maybe
through customers’ relationships with Google or Facebook we
could share some understanding of the individual and what their
purchasing patterns are and offer them tokens and vouchers
and loyalty that they are actually going to be interested in, then
it might be of real value to us.
“Industry touch-points are changing dramatically.”
letters
letters to the editor
RS
48 RS
April - May 2012
DON’T LET MOBILE PASS YOU BY
It is encouraging to see that visits to retail sites through
mobile devices are experiencing strong growth, with mobile
sales now accounting for five per cent of all online sales.
Such a boom presents huge opportunity for multi-channel
retailers, but failing to pay sufficient attention to all aspects
of the application development could lead to the opportunity
of m-commerce quickly passing them by.
Retailers investing in technologies, such as Quick Response
(QR) codes, for their mobile apps risk their efforts becoming
fruitless if the same effort is not applied to ensuring an efficient checkout process. Enabling consumers to access a website easily via a smartphone is one thing, but if the purchase
process forces them to enter their address details character by
character on an awkward mobile keypad, patience will wear thin.
Without ease of data entry, the customer may well abandon the basket in favour of waiting until a laptop or PC can
be used, by which point the impulse purchase opportunity
diminishes. Implementation of postcode address lookup is one
means by which to simplify data entry.
Emma Gooderham, managing director, WorldAddresses.com
A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE?
Deal-of-the-day sites such as Groupon have certainly been
making the headlines recently, but increasingly for less
than positive reasons. This is a shame, as such mass coupon
portals are providing a glimpse into the future, with the
promise of time-sensitive and geographically specific offers
pushed to consumers’ mobile phones. New digital coupon
technologies are exciting and compelling propositions,
however the risks need to be understood and managed.
There is certainly no justification for exposing consumers
to questionable terms and conditions, for merchant offers
to be cynically limited to minute volumes, or for misleading
headline prices to be allowed.
It’s now time for this new sector of the industry to take
a step back, slow down and catch its breath. These kinds
of promotions depend upon trust between the consumer,
confident the offer will be honoured; the merchant,
certain that they will recover the discount; and the
coupon issuer, who expects to pay only for coupons that
have been redeemed. This trust is underpinned by intermediary agents, who ensure the system works for the benefit of
all parties.
REVITALISING THE HIGH STREET
The prediction by the Local Data Company that High Street
vacancies are set to rise further in 2012 has sparked a debate
around whether bookmakers and betting shops have a role to
play in revitalising the British High Street. The Portas Review
claimed that a proliferation of bookmakers in low-income
areas is ‘blighting our High Streets’ and that they should be
placed in a planning use class of their own.
Can the country afford to exclude potentially profitable
businesses from the High Street at a time when retailers are
closing their doors? And do bookmakers need to be still further regulated? Although bookmakers and betting shops fall
within the same planning use class as other financial or professional services, they are already heavily regulated under
other legislation. Bookmakers need to obtain a multitude of
licences from the Gambling Commission and local authorities.
They are also some of the most heavily taxed.
In the current economic climate, attacking one of the
few growth industries appears short-sighted. Retail units are
falling empty, and empty properties create their own blight.
Allowing betting shops to occupy some of these properties
provides employment for local workers and ensures a degree
of footfall and activity – together hopefully with trips to
adjoining retailers.
Penny Dryden, commercial director, Valassis UK
Carl Dyer, retail partner, Thomas Eggar LLP
Trenton Moss, director, Webcredible
MOBILE’S PIVOTAL ROLE
While it is interesting that mobile sites are failing to meet
consumer expectations as revealed by EPiServer, it is quite
surprising to hear that only 20 per cent of companies surveyed have a mobile-optimised site in place. Many high profile
retailers for example, have yet to develop a mobile-optimised
site and, while many have chosen to abandon this route, others have opted for a mobile app instead. Low app downloads
however suggest that retailers need to take a step back and
take a more considered and joined-up approach to mobile
shopping.
With m-commerce predicted to grow significantly in 2012
in the UK alone, it is clear mobile will play a pivotal role in
a wider multi-channel strategy. Mobile optimised sites or
apps should provide a smooth, intuitive user experience,
while extra value should be added by including key features
such as store locators or stock availability checks. Moreover,
organisations must also make the best use of the screen
space providing filters, sort options and good quality
images. All organisations must begin incorporating mobile
into a wider multi-channel strategy, even if the return on
investment may not be immediate.
Letters to the Editor should be emailed to: [email protected]
IMRG column
RS
Thinking outside the channels
Andrew McClelland, chief operations & policy officer at IMRG, discusses what social
media means to retailers
I
f someone was to ask you what the
term ‘social media’ means, you would
probably assume they have been spent
most of the last decade in an extremely
remote environment indeed. Facebook
launched in 2004 and at last count, had
got up to 845 million users. Twitter played
an important role for communications
during the Arab Spring. YouTube has
grown to become the second most
popular search engine in the world, behind only Google itself.
Yet the question does have some relevance when considered in the context of
business use. Being able to communicate
with a wide range of friends and family
easily and for free has clear benefits from
an individual’s viewpoint, but the benefit
to a brand is less simple to measure. So
what does social media mean to a retailer?
The ability to reach millions of potential
customers at the click of a button and at
absolutely minimal cost seemed, from a
marketer’s perspective, too good to be
true. We saw a proliferation of Facebook
Stores opening up only to be shut down
again after poor sales. It appeared that
although consumers were happy to
engage with brands through social media,
they were not doing so with an immediate
purchase in mind.
The very nature of the retail industry
means that retailers need to see return
on their investments; they often have
shareholders to answer to after all. Hence
retailers have come to view social media
as an interesting ‘one to watch’ rather
than a proven transactional channel. What
this means is that retailers need to find
new ways to measure success, because
the opportunity is vast.
This initially requires a reassessment
and realignment of expectation. To use
an example, Victoria’s Secrets Facebook
page had on last check over 18 million
followers. This is a huge segment of
potential customers to market products
to, but actually many of these followers
are young and male and therefore not
likely to be among the retailer’s target
customer demographic. Large blanket
broadcasts are one thing, targeting the
right audience with those communications is something else.
People use social media because we are
social by our very nature and the internet
is moving towards a more interactive
model that supports that aspect of
human culture far better. Shopping is a
social experience as we often need assistance or confirmation from friends during
the purchase process to ensure we select
the product appropriate to our requirements. Retailers understand that and the
platforms they work with are becoming
more sophisticated in their capacity to
support social engagement.
The term engagement has become
something of a cliché when discussing
social, but thus far how engaging a social
campaign is has been the only true measure of success. And yet it is a difficult one
to quantify; if a campaign wins thousands
of new followers or leads to a flurry of
retweets around the internet, then it is
undeniable that this has been a successful
endeavour in some way. Still though, the
question of what that success actually
means to a retailer in real terms remains.
Once again I think the expectation of
generating measurable results that can
be understood in a traditional business
sense is inaccurate. The concept of being
social and engaging with those around us
is as old as the human race, but social in
a digital context is still in its infancy. How
our understanding of social behaviour
online and how businesses can best operate within that space develops will be
fascinating to see, but one thing would
appear certain; the concept of social on
the internet is not only here to stay, but
will quite likely continue to dominate how
people approach using it.
There is no ready-made solution that
retailers can take out of a box, read
the manual, and then declare that they
completely understand social online. The
simple reason for this lack of clarity is
that this is still a fairly young concept
that started out as a network for locating old school friends, then via music
act promotion on MySpace ended up as
status and content-sharing networks on
Facebook and Twitter. The inception of
social in a digital context was about finding people and communicating with them
in new ways. Businesses are not a natural
fit into this environment, so are having to
find their way with tentative steps.
It would appear that the first attempt
to turn social into another channel for
retailers to sell through has not been a
success, which is not to say it never will
be. At the moment social remains a very
interesting mass broadcast medium for
businesses, but what that means to them
in real terms is yet to be defined.
As social develops online the measures
of success will become more apparent,
but in the interim period it may be a
positive idea for retailers to think outside
the channel, not to interpret social engagement as happening within separate
networks but seeing social as being one
of the key concepts underpinning the
operation of the internet. In essence this
would be to stop thinking of social and
instead to begin thinking social.
RS
appointments
People on the move
Jason Southern
Specialist manufacturer of PC-based touchscreen EPoS, J2 Retail Systems, has made a
new senior appointment. Jason Southern has
been employed in the role of business development manager. Jason will focus both on direct contact with
J2’s SME-level clients and on developing the company’s indirect
sales operation, through channel partners and resellers. He
says: “I intend to increase communication and business generation with new and existing partners.”
Ian Stead
In a key development for the UK’s 3D design
industry, a new company called Fuzzwire has
been launched. Created through the merger
of two existing businesses, LDJ Design & Display and Centre Design, Fuzzwire will be the UK’s lead innovator
in 3D design. Ian Stead has been appointed chief executive. He
says: “With Fuzzwire we’ve created a vehicle capable of bringing new levels of innovation and quality into our industry. We
have a highly motivated team that’s passionate about delivering creativity to their clients and customers.”
Alison Lancaster
Kiddicare.com has announced the appointment of Alison Lancaster as marketing and
merchandising director for online and nonfood, reporting into Scott Weavers-Wright.
Alison will also head up the marketing strategy to launch the
new Morrisons website. Alison joins the Kiddicare.com and
Morrisons online team from White Stuff, where she was cross
channel director. Alison’s previous achievements include the
strategic launch of John Lewis.com and Debenhams.com.
Santosh Naidoo
K3 Retail, the UK’s largest provider of solutions
based on Microsoft Dynamics has added to
its Dynamics AX for Retail team with the appointment of Santosh Naidoo as its new pre
sales solution architect. Santosh joins K3 Retail from Microsoft
Dynamics AX for retail partner, Junction Solutions, and brings
17 years experience of working with enterprise systems and
financial ERP systems, within the finance, manufacturing, supply
chain and distribution industries.
Rob Minns
Rob Minns has joined MetaPack as sales and
business development director. He says. “This
is an exciting time to join. MetaPack’s growth
is clearly indicative of the performance of
the online retail sector which it serves. Retailers are investing
significantly in their online businesses and MetaPack supports
their objectives enabling multi-carrier, product range expansion
and international market strategies.” Prior to joining MetaPack,
Rob was sales director at GXS.
Omid Rezvanias
eCommera has strengthened its in-house
mobile commerce solution offering with the
appointment of Omid Rezvanias as director of
mobile commerce solutions. Rezvani, formerly
CEO of Symsource, which eCommera acquired last year, will be
tasked with managing the development of eCommera’s mobile
commerce strategy which has come increasingly to the fore
and is designed to offer its customers a fully integrated multichannel service. Omid says: “The retail landscape has changed
very quickly with the consumer gaining more and more power.”
Kiddicare
Morrisons has moved four of its senior
directors into its wholly-owned subsidiary
Kiddicare. Hilary Leam becomes commercial
director at Kiddicare after being director
for health, beauty and household at Morrisons. Grant Henley
becomes operations director after being business development director. Simon Eastwood becomes retail stores director
after being customer experience director and Mandy Flatley
becomes HR director after being HR director (corporate).
Joe Guy
Datalogic S.p.A. has appointed Joe Guy as vicepresident and general manager, solutions,
Datalogic ADC. Reporting directly to Datalogic
ADC CEO, Bill Parnell, Joe Guy brings a wealth
of software and solutions experience to Datalogic. In addition
to his previous role as senior vice president of solutions and
products for PSC, he served as president/CEO of Xpanxion,
providing software development services for small to midsize
application software companies.
Retail signage
has never looked
so good
THE NEW X UN SERIES
With high-definition 1080p resolution and direct LED backlight technology, the new
46” MultiSync® X463UN delivers outstanding uniformity with a supremely narrow
bezel width of just 5.9mm for the most compelling video wall experience available
today. Reliability and longevity are secured with NEC’s unique heat management
system whilst NEC’s dual slot technology allows unbeatable installation opportunities.
Retail signage has never looked so good!
+44 (0) 870 120 1160
www.nec-displays.co.uk
Copyright 2012 NEC Display Solutions Europe GmbH. All rights are reserved in favour of their respective owners. This document is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind whatsoever, either express or implied.
directory
RS
Marketplace
directory
listing
To Advertise contact Lisa Gayle Telephone: 0207 562 2428 Email: [email protected]
To make the directory section as easy as possible to use, we have added an index of headings below. These are listed alphabetically in order for you to find
the products and services you are looking to source.
To list your company within the section, please contact Lisa on 020 7562 2428 or email [email protected] for a quote.
address management software
Capscan Ltd
Grand Union House
20 Kentish Town Road
London
NW1 9BB
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7428 1255
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7267 2745
Capscan is a leading supplier of international addressing solutions and data integrity
services. Our award-winning addressing solutions enable retailers to capture, verify and
enhance name and address data for:
•
•
•
•
•
Responsive customer service and contact centre management
EPOS data collection and online retailing
Efficient HR and payroll management
Effective Sales and Marketing campaigns
Accurate delivery of goods or services
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.capscan.com
Capscan's addressing system is available as a stand-alone programme for data capture or
batch cleansing of commercial databases and as a web-based tool for online data capture.
Capscan also supply store-location and mailsorting solutions, and bureau services.
Enigma House
Elgar Business Centre
Moseley Road, Hallow
Worcester
WR2 6NJ
Tel: 0800 047 0495
Postcode Anywhere is a UK-based company well known for its award-winning “what’s
your postcode” technology, used to quickly complete your address when buying online.
The company’s range of services, all delivered online, are specifically designed to boost
business efficiency and include route optimisation, international address auto-fill, data
cleansing, business information services and lifestyle profiling.
Over 8,000 customers worldwide use Postcode Anywhere for better data cleanliness,
speedier form-filling and increased conversion rates. Postcode Anywhere processes over
a million transactions a day.
business software
Keystone Software
Development Ltd
4-5 Hill Court
Grantham
NG31 7XY
Khaos Control is a leading business software solution, with a strong focus on the multi-channel
retail industry.
It is Sales Order Processing software, but with integrated and powerful stock control,
purchasing, accounts, CRM, contact management, invoicing, marketing and promotions.
It integrates with most e-commerce web sites, complementing them by providing a powerful
back-office solution for controlling the picking, packing and despatching of orders and
supporting the full range of customer services including returns/refunds.
T: 0845 25 75 111
[email protected]
It's modern, Windows based, scaleable and resilient.
W: www.khaoscontrol.com
customer counting metrics
Axiomatic Technology Ltd.
Graphic House
Kimberley, Nottingham,
NG16 2NE
Tel: 0115 8757505
Fax: 0115 8757510
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.peoplecounting.co.uk
Axiomatic has been at the forefront of people counting technology since 1994, helping transform
how retailers gather data and make strategic decisions. Our strong academic links and supplier
partnerships help bring innovations like queue counting and dwell time analysis to market. Our new
web-based SQL reporting is a breakthrough in clear information display, making multi-site reporting
easier than ever.
We ensure we understand each client’s goals and challenges, then respond with a solution that
cost-effectively gets results. Our technical team including software and hardware experts can
quickly assess everything you need and get the right solution in place.
D I R E C T O R Y O F K E Y P L A Y E R S
call
020 7562 2428
l i s a . g ay l e @ r e ta i l - s y s t e m s . c o m fa x
020 7374 2701
delivery solutions
MetaPack is the leading provider of delivery management solutions
MetaPack Ltd
12-16 Laystall Street
London, EC1R 4PF
• Best practise delivery solution – improve customer retention
• Single point of integration for all carriers
• Easily add new carriers and switch between them allowing for contingencies
• Complete tracking and extensive performance reporting
• Proactive customer care through email & sms messaging for shipments
• Reduce logistics costs through effective allocation
Tel: 020 7843 6720
Fax: 020 7843 6721
Web: www.metapack.com
Customers range from large and multichannel retailers such as John Lewis, ASOS, B&Q,
Marks & Spenser and DGSi Group to smaller pure play companies.
direct commerce software
MNP
91 Crane Street
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP1 2PU
Enterprise back office retail platforms for mid sized retailers, ActiveSeries comprises
order management (OMS), warehousing (WMS) and purchase & merchandising solution
(IMS) ensures real time multi channel inventory, operational efficiency with real time
business intelligence.
Interfaces into Torex, Island Pacific, RBS, Futura, Riva, Red Prairie, Hybris, Magento
and 30+ proprietary ecommerce platforms. Integrated with Channel Advisor, Royal Mail,
Metapack, GFS, Ebay, Amazon and many more third parties.
Tel: 01722 341342
Fax: 01722 341888
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.mnp-media.com
e-commerce and head-office
ActiveSeries platform users include Lakeland Limited, Kurt Geiger, LK Bennett, Surfdome
and Soletrader
(multi-channel)
hybris UK Ltd.
Holborn Tower
137 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6PW
T +44 (0)207 429 4175
F +44 (0)207 329 8291
[email protected]
solutions
hybris is a leading vendor of multichannel commerce & communication software. Its clear vision
about the need for consistency, co-ordination and personalization of information across all
channels and throughout all phases of the customer lifecycle has resulted in the development of
an integrated solution which supports the industrialization and automation of communication,
sales and support processes both online and offline. It is spearheading innovation in this field,
enabling companies to master the complexities of implementing and managing single site,
multi-site and multichannel communication and commerce processes step-by-step without
any compromises
Kudos Software Ltd
Cliff House, Cliff Road
Salcombe
Devon
TQ8 8JQ
Kudos Software are specialists in retail and operational stock management software solutions
Tel: 01548 843586
Fax: 01548 843503
E: [email protected]
W: www.kudos-software.co.uk
mail order operations, large unit sales (such as caravans and boats) and e-commerce. We
Nisyst
Nirvana House
89 - 99 High Street
Little Lever
Bolton
BL3 1NA
Tel: 01204 706 000
W: www.nisyst.co.uk
with 20 years experience in the retail industry and 300+ installed sites. Supporting single or
multi-branch operations our feature rich EPOS tilling solutions increase efficiency, reduce admin
and improve profitability. Kudos’ integrated systems are designed for retail shops, workshops,
offer a complete solution from initial consultancy through to installation, hardware, training
and support.
Nisyst has over 20 years experience of developing and implementing EPoS systems for a range
of retail users from multi-site, multi-channel operations through to small, single-site businesses.
Nisyst delivers complete solutions from point of sale to back office, reporting and stock control
systems, giving a real commercial advantage to your organisation. Its market leading solutions,
NPoS Enterprise and NPoS Lite, can be fully customised to meet customer requirements, improve
business efficiency and save costs.
Key NPoS modules include full sales and marketing control featuring email and SMS integration,
stock control, purchase ordering, instant reporting and analysis, and pre-built e-commerce
integration for ordering and distribution. Nisyst systems operate on a comprehensive range
of electronic point of sale systems, including the latest generation of contactless and mobile
applications.
call
020 7562 2428
e-commerce and head-office
(multi-channel)
Retail Assist Ltd
The Hub
40 Friar Lane
Nottingham
NG1 6DQ
020 7374 2701
solutions
Retail Assist is a leading retail-only solutions and services company, providing UK and
international retailers with end-to-end business applications plus a comprehensive range of
services that reduce costs, optimise retail operations and support higher revenues.
Our managed services offer 24/365 Help Desk, Technical Services, Operations, Data Centre
Hosting, Hardware Maintenance and Disaster Recovery. Managed solutions offer hardware,
software and services, based on a fully-managed and hosted "software as a service" model.
T: 0115 853 3910
W: www.retail-assist.com
www.merret.com
Merret, our award-winning integrated supply chain solution covers all areas of stock control and
retail supply for real-time multi-outlet, multi-channel merchandising and warehousing, plus
business intelligence.
Torex RBS Ltd
24-26 Vincent Avenue,
Crownhill,
Milton Keynes MK8 0AB
Torex RBS provides comprehensive IT solutions for the retail environment; ranging from EPoS
to back office, warehousing, multi-channel and PCI DSS services. We offer systems for all types
of retailer; from tier 1 and 2, high street multiples and multi-fascia retailers to department stores,
speciality and charity retailers.
Tel : 01908-226226
Email : [email protected]
Web :www.torex.com
Torex RBS has a wealth of knowledge and experience of developing, implementing and
supporting IT systems within the retail sector, and is the preferred supplier of the Retail-J
solution for many leading UK retailers.
Clients include La Senza, Aurora, Paperchase, World Duty Free, First Quench and Harvey
Nichols.
If you have a retail IT requirement, contact Torex RBS today.
epos hardware
Casio Electronics Co.Ltd
Unit 6, 1000 North Circular Road
London
NW2 7JD
Casio provides ruggedised hand-held terminals for the retail store and warehouse environment.
Our terminals are used for logistics, shelf-edge labelling, stock control and PLU applications.
Operating Windows CE or Mobile, our mobile terminals can include an auto-focus camera, WLAN/
WWAN communications, GPS mapping, a barcode scanner, contactless card reader and the
Tel: 020 8450 9131
W: www.casio.co.uk/mobile
brightest touch screen display available.
Casio is a market-leader, with support and service facilities in London. Contact us
for more information and a loan sample of our retail products - the DT-X7, DT-X30 & IT-800.
DED Limited
Harden Road
Lydd
Kent
TN29 9LX
T: 01797 320636
F: 01797 320273
W: www.ded.co.uk
DED Limited distribute a wide range of EPOS hardware for a
variety of applications. Products include:
-
Dot Matrix & Thermal Receipt Printers
Label, Ticket & Kiosk Printers
CCD & Laser Barcode Scanners
Magnetic/Smart Card Readers & Writers
Cash Drawers
Customer Displays
epos, store, head office, warehouse and web solutions
Celtech Software
International Ltd.
East Point, Fairview,
Dublin 3. Ireland
ab-initio from Celtech Software is the ultimate real-time system suite for retail and wholesale
multiples.
T: +353 1 855 8200
F: +353 1 836 5509
W: www.celtech.ie
ab-initio real-time will deliver more than just live visibility and control of your business – it will
radically streamline your operations and opportunities. It will enable you to deliver unique
customer experience initiatives over your competitors – better, faster, easier and cheaper. It will enable you to achieve maximum internal operational efficiency and cost savings.
Contradictory? Proven!
From head-office to point-of-sale, from warehouse to web, individual ab-initio modules can be
adopted and integrated with your existing systems to fulfil immediate business requirements,
or we can run the whole suite as a complete end-to-end solution for you.
Don’t make a decision until you have seen the power of ab-initio.
call
020 7562 2428
020 7374 2701
epos, store, head office, warehouse and web solutions
FUTURA RETAIL
SOLUTIONS - DEDICATED
RETAIL SPECIALISTS
Contact: Paul Court
Tel: 01189 841925
Website: www.futurauk.com
FUTURA RETAIL SOLUTIONS - DEDICATED RETAIL SPECIALISTS
Futura specialises in making a difference to profitability - through rapid response to customers'
needs, greater efficiency throughout leading to reduced stockholding to free up working capital.
Based on an unrivalled understanding of retailer's needs, Futura offers the most robust,
sophisticated integrated solution available, suiting lifestyle retailers, fashion houses and
department stores.
Futura is proven, reliable and affordable and gives management greater vision and control,
helping to optimise target levels, minimise losses and achieve a rapid return on investment. To
grow your business, expand on the web or streamline your Head Office to increase profitability,
call 01189 841925 today.
K3 Business Technology
Group plc
Corinthian Court
80 Milton Park
Abingdon
Oxfordshire
OX14 4RY
Tel: +44 (0) 870 225 1390
Fax: +44 (0) 870 225 1391
Support: +44 (0) 870 225 1392
Web: http://www.theretailpeople.com
“As a global leader providing ERP and Retail software solutions K3 have 25 years of specialist
experience. K3 are a major provider of the award winning Microsoft Dynamics business solution
and have been certified as a Microsoft Gold Partner and are an invited member of Microsoft’s
prestigious 'Inner Circle';
Prima Solutions Ltd
Loughborough Technology Park
Ashby Road
Loughborough
LEICS LE11 3NG
T: +44(0)1509 232200
F: +44(0)1509 262323
http://www.primasolutions.co.uk
Prima Solutions is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading providers of complete multichannel business solutions for the clothing, footwear, bags and accessories marketplace. The
Prima ethos is simple - by really understanding the business requirements and issues faced by
each customer, we can work together to design practical, low risk solutions that add real value.
K3's success has resulted in an enviable reputation for not only delivering some of the most
complex solutions for our clients; we also back up our products and applications with high quality
service and support.
At K3 we believe that our success is supported by our values, fundamental in our processes and,
ultimately, reflected in your business.”
Our aim is to work in continuous partnership with our clothing, footwear and accessory industry
clients to deliver outstanding apparel solutions covering every aspect of the business from
product development through to order management, stock control and planning, manufacturing
and sourcing, wardrobe management, customer and supplier management, financial controls
and business reporting.
Customers include: Mulberry, Joules, Nigel Hall, Curvy Kate, Blue Max Banner, Dubarry of
Ireland, Church’s Shoes, Wolsey and John Smedley.
Protouch Manufacturing
Unit 1A Albany Park
Frimley Road
Camberley
Surrey
GU167QQ
T: 01276 68 44 00
F: 01276 68 15 85
W: www.protouch.co.uk
Protouch are the leading supplier of touch screen EPoS hardware; included in our range
is our award winning in store EPoS kiosk solution.
We can do everything from in store payment, ordering, product look up, receipt / ticket
printing, RFID, Bluetooth to branding and these types of products have already optimised
the sales and services of clients such as Specsavers, Sports World, Ikea and Kiddicare.
In addition to touch screen EPoS hardware we manufacture and distribute touch screen
monitors and PCs and large format digital signage across all industries.
fraud prevention
1st Floor Belgrave House
76 Buckingham Palace Rd.
London SW1W 9AX UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1273 693555
Fax: +44(0) 2033 643538
Website: www.accertify.com
Accertify®, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Express, is a leader in
providing e-commerce companies with hosted software solutions, tools and strategies for
preventing online fraud and mitigating enterprise-wide risks. Our Interceptas® platform
integrates every component of fraud prevention, applies state-of-the-art automation to each
step in the process and offers advanced capabilities for managing fraud data. Accertify can
aggregate data across your organization to deliver a true, enterprise-wide view of all your
interrelated risks. Built from a merchant’s perspective, Interceptas delivers flexibility in
preventing various types of criminal behavior, including fraud related to card-not-present
purchases, online scams and policy abuse, merchandise returns and exchanges and other data
management challenges. Accertify is committed to providing online companies with the most
cost-effective, flexible solution to fraud available.
call
020 7562 2428
020 7374 2701
international payment services
Ogone Payment Services
Highbridge
Oxford Road
Uxbridge UB8 1HR
United Kingdom
M. [email protected]
Tel. 0203 147 4966
www.ogone.co.uk
Ogone Payment Services is Europe’s leading provider of international e-Commerce
payment solutions for retailers that want to drive secure, compliant sales across European
markets. The Ogone PCI-DSS compliant platform enables our customers to process
payments from over 40 international and local payment methods in multiple
languages and local currencies. Our approach is focused on helping retailers drive
maximum revenue from multiple markets, with minimal effort. Dedicated in-market
support and consultancy is provided across all major European countries to ensure your
payment strategy consistently delivers.
managed it and communication services
Star Micronics Europe Limited
Star House
Peregrine Business Park
Gomm Road
High Wycombe
HP13 7DL
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 471111
Fax: +44 (0) 1494 473333
Web: www.Star-EMEA.com
Star Micronics provides an extensive range of thermal and matrix POS printers designed for
a variety of applications. Key products include:
- The revolutionary TSP100 futurePRNTTM series offers a range of models, including the
world’s first ECO POS printer, with a variety of unique software tools. This printer has
been successfully installed by a number of major retailers worldwide including Harrods
and Selfridges.
- Award-winning TSP800II A4 replacement printer
- High speed TSP700II combined receipt, ticket, label and barcode printer
- Versatile FVP10 front operating, vocal direct thermal printer
- Wide range of OEM kiosk printers
- Card reader/writer systems designed to instantly erase, re-write or print up-to-date
information.
payment processing solutions
PacNet Services Ltd.
Payment Processing
Contact: Brian Weekes
Tel: +353 61 714360,
W: www.pacnetservices.com
PacNet offers a global range of inbound and outbound payment processing
services for electronic retailers. Enjoy easy access to credit card merchant
accounts, electronic debits and credits, international payment types and the
cutting edge RAVEN payment gateway. Lift sales by offering your customers
relevant payment options in up to 130 currencies. There is no need to set up
foreign bank accounts or contract with multiple providers – no matter what
currency your customers use to pay, you will enjoy fast access to funds in the
very same bank account that you use today.
payment solutions
Symphony House
7 Cowley Business Park
High Street, Cowley Uxbridge,
UB8 2AD, UK
T: +44 1895 275275
E: emeamarketing@
verifone.com
W: www.verifone.com
VeriFone Holdings, Inc. ("VeriFone") (NYSE:PAY), a global leader in secure
electronic payment technologies, provides expertise, solutions and services for
today with a migration strategy for tomorrow. VeriFone delivers solutions that add
value to the point of sale, resulting in improved merchant retention and the
generation of new sources of revenue for its partners and customers. VeriFone
solutions are specifically designed to meet the needs of vertical markets including
financial, retail, petroleum, government and healthcare.
FIS Merchant Payments
Tricorn House,
51/53 Hagley Road,
Birmingham. B16 8TU
United Kingdom.
FIS Merchant Payments make it easier to accept a wide range of payment types
more securely. Card payments can be processed from multiple store locations or
ecommerce sites for authorisation, fraud detection and data storage. Our
ClearCommerce solution is the world's leading ecommerce payment processing
T: 0121 410 4357
solution that detects and reduces payment fraud before you process the order.
F: 0121 410 4200
TRANSAXion is ideal if you operate many branch locations, offering one point of
W: www.fismerchantpayments.com
contact for all your payment processing. We are PCI:DSS accredited.
Contact: [email protected]
The net results are proven to reduce your costs and protect your profits. Call us.
call
020 7562 2428
020 7374 2701
payment solutions
Commidea Ltd
100 Eureka Park
Ashford
Kent
TN25 4AZ
Tel: 08444 828 200
Fax: 08444 828 210
[email protected]
www.commidea.com
Chase Paymentech
Europe Limited
Block K
East Point Business Park
Dublin 3
Ireland
T: + 353.1.726.2900
w: www.chasepaymentech.co.uk
Commidea provide card payment processing solutions for customer
present and customer not present environments including: - Ocius Sentinel - An end-to-end dual
encrypted payment solution that can reduce
the scope and cost of achieving and
maintaining PCI DSS compliance by 80%
- A range of advanced ecommerce solutions
for real time and batch transaction processing
- Contactless payments, e-top up, gift and
loyalty schemes and more…..
- Ocius Vx810 Duet – A two-in-one payment
solution for high volume retail environments
Chase Paymentech is a global leader in payment processing and merchant acquiring and
is a specialist in customer-not-present (CNP) transactions, capable of authorising
transactions in more than 130 currencies. The company's proprietary platforms provide
access to a wide variety of payment methods including credit and debit cards. In 2009,
Chase Paymentech processed more than 18.0 billion transactions with a value exceeding
$409.7 billion, including an estimated half of all global e-commerce Visa and MasterCard
transactions. The company also provides a full set of solutions aimed at accelerating cash
flow and managing transaction data. Chase Paymentech's unique combination of outstanding service, innovative solutions and financial strength offers solid benefits to companies
both large and small. Chase Paymentech Europe Limited, trading as Chase Paymentech,
is a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, N.A. (JPMC) and is regulated by the Central Bank of
Ireland. More information can be found at www.chasepaymentech.co.uk.
retail and distribution
VoiteQ Ltd
Neptune Court
Hallam Way
Whitehills
Blackpool
FY4 5LZ
T: 0844 8940 322
W: www.voiteq.com
VoiteQ supplies fully integrated retail solutions which incorporate Business Management
Systems for head office control and EPoS systems for the stores.
VPoS is the EPoS system that is designed by retailers for retailers, to meet the needs of any retail
business, whether that’s an independent business with a small number of stores or a major
multiple retailer.
VoiteQ also offers VoiceMan, the UK’s leading voice middleware solution for warehouse and
distribution operations.
store, head office and distribution solutions
BCP - Business Computer
Projects Ltd
BCP House, 151 Charles Street
Stockport, Cheshire
SK1 3JY
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0) 161 355 3000
F: +44 (0) 161 355 3001
W: www.bcpsoftware.com
Contact: Richard Marshall
BCP is a leading supplier of Supply Chain software solutions to the Retail and Wholesale
Distribution industry.
Our Accord ® supply chain solution is a powerful, fully integrated system offering store automation,
web, cash control, central store management, voice-directed warehousing, logistics, finance and
business analytics. Based upon a modern, cost-effective, real-time technology and single
architecture, Accord ® is an ideal solution for today's progressive retailer, empowering
companies to improve business across all channels, facilitating overall growth in revenue and
profitability.
Over 8000 users across the UK and Ireland depend on BCP solutions to control their
day-to-day business.
supply chain solutions
RedPrairie Ltd
EMEA Headquarters:
Beacon House
Ibstone Road
Stokenchurch
Bucks. HP14 3AQ
www.redprairie.co.uk/retail
Tel: 01494 486500
[email protected]
Contact: Natalie Green
RedPrairie delivers productivity solutions to retailers to help manage workforce, inventory and
transportation both in the supply chain and in-store. RedPrairie provides these solutions to
enable retailers to support business strategies that increase revenue, reduce costs and create
competitive advantage.
With over 20 global offices and solutions that are installed at more than 34,000 customer sites in
over 40 countries, companies trust RedPrairie workforce, inventory and transportation solutions to
deliver an increase in productivity - with the flexibility to adapt, as business needs change.
At RedPrairie, we understand today’s operational demands and we’re committed to
delivering solutions that work. We’re committed to delivering solutions for the real world.
Efficiency
has a new name.
So many services, one new name –
SIX Multipay, SIX Pay, SIX Card Solutions,
SIX Paynet, and SIX Interbank Clearing
become SIX Payment Services.
We provide nancial institutions and retail customers with
secure and innovative solutions for cashless payments, setting industry standards in terms of exibility and customer
focus. With over 1000 employees and 13 ofce locations,
SIX Payment Services partners with customers in 33 countries, which makes us one of the largest subsidiaries of SIX.
In the elds of securities trading and settlement as well as
nancial information and payment transactions SIX offers
rst-rate services worldwide. www.six-payment-services.com
retail worlds
RS
Lord Ian
Maclaurin
Lord Ian Maclaurin has been chairman of Vodafone
and chief executive of Tesco. He is a former Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board and
a former Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire. Lord Maclaurin recently invested in an e-receipt startup, Paperless Receipts, which launched
at the 2012 Retail Business Technology Expo.
Retail Systems: How did you get into retail?
Lord Ian Maclaurin: I was interviewed in 1958 by the
founder of Tesco, Jack Cohen, and offered a trainee position. He started me on £900 a year and I got a company car,
it was a Morris Oxford van and had one driver’s seat in the
front and a deck chair for my wife in the back. In 1958, if
you were making £1,000 a year – you had made it. So I guess
you could say I had almost made it!
RS: What do you love most about working in retail?
Lord Maclaurin: That’s a tough one, but I would have to
say – the people. And I don’t just mean the people you work
with, but the people you supply; your customers. Retail is a
people business and understanding your customers is one of
the most important parts of that.
RS: Is there anything that frustrates you about
working in retail?
Lord M: When I went into retail it wasn’t really seen as a
career, but now, over the years retail has turned out to be
a fantastic career path for many people. So there’s nothing
that really aggravates me about the retail sector – it’s a
challenge yes, but it’s a great challenge.
RS: Who in retail inspires you and why?
Lord M: Initially the person who really inspired me was Lord
John Sainsbury. He was a fantastic retailer and taught eve-
ryone in our industry a lot. He even tried to pinch me from
Tesco once, but I refused, I’m glad I did now. At the moment
there’s no-one in particular in retail who inspires me, apart
from Tesco’s new CEO Philip Clarke of course.
RS: Which IT professional do you most admire?
Lord M: Andrew Carroll, of course. He is the founder
of Paperless Receipts, a company which I recently invested
in and am now chairman of. The idea is a brilliant and really
has no downside for retailers. It’s the sort of thing I would
have definitely introduced at Tesco, but I didn’t have anything quite so interesting come across my desk. Apart from
the Clubcard of course – that wasn’t a bad idea!
RS: What do you do in your spare time to relax?
Lord M: I like to play golf and my wife and I like to go for
long walks with our Springer Spaniels. Unfortunately my wife
is a much better golfer than I am.
RS: Which piece of technology can’t you live without?
Lord M: I would have to say my iPad. It really has become
indispensable to me, it’s got everything on it; my music,
my appointments, contacts, shopping and soon my online
receipts too.
RS: What was the last purchase you made both online and on the High-Street and were they positive
experiences?
Lord M: The last purchase I made online was from Amazon,
I downloaded five books onto my Kindle before I went on
holiday. Amazon is a fantastic retail site, so quick and easy
to use. My last purchase on the High Street is a bit more difficult to remember I have to admit, but I believe it was some
shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt and yes, it was a very positive
experience.
The Fifth Annual Retail Systems
Multi-Channel Retail Conference 2012
E
E
R
F R
FO ERS
IL
A
T
RE
Thursday, 20th September 2012
09:00 - 16:30 Hilton London Tower Bridge
Join the biggest names in Retail for your day of insights, discussion and networking. Featuring 25 leading
industry speakers, 9 presentations, 3 interactive panel discussions, complimentary lunch and networking
drinks – the Retail Systems Multi-Channel Conference is a day not to be missed!
You will learn:
•
•
•
•
The technology trends retailers can’t afford to ignore
How retailers can effectively join up their channels
The rise and rise of mobile
The rise of mobile TV and TV commerce
•
•
•
•
The importance of social media
Personalisation, getting it right
Going international, but staying local
How logistics impacts multi-channel strategies
Top industry speakers include:
Keynote presentation: Gavin Sathianathan
Strategic Partner Manager
Chairman: Martin Newman
Chief Executive Officer
Practicology
Sean McKee
Head of E-Commerce and Customer Services
Schuh
Andrew McClelland
Chief Operating and Policy Officer
IMRG
Hayley Meenan-Wilkin
Head of Web Operations
Tesco.com
Gary Lynch
Chief Executive Officer
GS1
Tom Allason
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Shutl
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Contents
04 REtail’s deadly sins
This year, K3 Retail revisited their 2010 report ‘The Seven Deadly Sins of Multi-channel
Retail’. Much has changed but the result is that the great benefits of multi-channel retailing are not being fully realised by retailers
06 Speed is king
In true multi-channel commerce, different channels don’t compete for attention – they
complement each other. So a compelling digital experience enhances your brand as well
as directly boosting revenue. Retailers know this, say dynaTrace
07 Great performance
Cars.com recently implemented Compuware Application Performance Management.
They ran a multi-channel advertising campaign throughout the Super Bowl
RS
supplement
Retail’s deadly sins
This year, K3 Retail revisited our 2010
report ‘The Seven Deadly Sins of Multichannel Retail’. Much has changed but
the result is that the great benefits of
multi-channel retailing are not being
fully realised by retailers. Join us as we
explore the present and the future
M
ost merchants are still operating in silos and therefore
the customer can easily be disappointed by the brand
experience, which can often feel disjointed.
Against this backdrop we have chosen to re-visit the Seven
Sins document and to establish where we are in 2012 and to also
steer our thoughts into the future for what is gearing up to be
the decade of monumental change for the retail industry.
Last Mile Delivery
From home delivery to in-store collections mean that stores are
also a major pick-up/collection point and this is alsoforcing stores
to have a much greater role to play in their stock management.
The thought process now is to possibly move from a replenishment model to one of fulfilment. As this evolves it will
become increasingly the case that retailers will need to enable
customers to view stock availability online and in real-time for
each store.
The big question is will these new functions for their stores
will play a part in the evolution of their physical outlets and how
they are ultimately going to use their space better as part of
their developing multi-channel models?
Impact on Personnel
Visitors to the big retail technology show NRF in New York in
January 2012 will have quickly discovered that the latest breed
of retail executive to emerge are called omni-channel directors.
Could we say that the emergence of this new breed of roles
is indicative of the pace of change in the industry? Or maybe it
suggests there is some confusion among retailers to fully grasp
what’s required to make the journey to become a fully fledged
multi-channel retailer.
Because of the uncertainty there is a lot of movement within
the industry around these new multi-channel-related roles. In
comparison, buying and merchandising, logistics and supply
chain directors, and retail operations directors remain fairly
stable roles.
We’ve also made reference previously to the need for top-level/boardroom support when moving to the multi-channel model,
and if this is not the case within certain retailers then they are
the ones likely to face the most serious issues in the future.
Single View of Stock
Critical to today’s channel-hopping consumers is managing a
single ‘pool’ of stock rather than silos of product located in
different areas within a business – including stores, warehouses
and dedicated home delivery depots.
It really is surprising that 55% of UK retailers believe they have
a full multi-channel offering when in reality very few merchants
have such a capability despite their beliefs and protestations.
Expenditure in these areas is not necessarily a bad thing but
retailers must also commit to putting in place the necessary IT
backbone that will
power a successful multi-channel
proposition, which
is based on the
highly desirable
and essential single view of stock
and customer
information.
Mobile
In 2010 mobile was only briefly referenced in the ‘The Seven
Deadly Sins of Multi-channel Retail’ report. How times have
changed? We are now predicting that by 2014 in the UK almost
every mobile will be a smartphone and be connected to the
internet
Such pieces of technology, with their touch-screens, create
a direct link between the consumer’s physical finger and their
digital fingerprint (that is created by such devices), which can be
used by retailers to gain insight on their customers
supplement
This is just the beginning of the mobile revolution so expect
to see many more such initiatives, which take multi-channel
retailing up a significant notch.
Over-complicating the Customer Journey
This is applicable
to more than
just websites as
it is also relevant
to the digital
channel in all
its incarnations
– EPoS, mobile
devices, kiosks,
and traditional
e-commerce
sites. And as they all become joined-up then there is a need for
greater consistency across them.
For each of these channels there is also a move towards the
brand presence becoming personalised to individual customers. For starters, landing pages need to be much more tailored
to each shopper and the coherent mining of the data that is
accumulated on each customer across the various channels is
absolutely vital.
Loyalty programmes therefore need to be integrated within
this scenario in order to further engender a one-to-one relationship between retailers and their customers. And this then needs
to be linked into the store estate in order that merchants can
really provide the ultimate multi-channel customer journey.
Stores in the Multi-channel Model
How many times over the last two years has the store-of-thefuture been under discussion? Despite the predictions of the
death of the high street shop at the time of the dotcom boom
the physical outlet is now being mooted as possibly the final
piece of the jigsaw in the multi-channel journey.
This has been partly prompted by the emergence of smartphones, which closely link e-commerce with physical outlets.
However, this coincides with strong evidence of the shrinking of
the high street as physical retail presences decline on the back
of rental increases, rate rises, car parking costs going through
the roof, and online sales taking off.
But it is likely to be even more challenging in the future as the
total population becomes, over time, digital natives.
RS
week now changed whereby the peak is no longer on a Saturday
afternoon? It could instead be on Friday lunchtimes as people
buy from their desks at work.
All this change needs a skilled workforce because multi-channel is not simple, and by the nature of retail today, less people
are now doing more complex jobs. So who are these people
who head up all of this multi-channel change within retailers’
businesses?
Typically retailers that are implementing multi-channel solutions are spending very little time and money on managing the
impact that this change will have on their businesses. This is a
big mistake. Resources should be committed, using in-house
skills or through
third-parties, but
either way it is
imperative that
retailers don’t
underestimate
the amount of
change that is involved in moving
to a multi-channel operation.
For a copy of the full white paper please contact [email protected]
Nominations for the top 100 Movers & Shakers in the retail
world are now open. We’re looking for people who really exploit
the opportunities of Multi Channel retailing, enhancing customers’ shopping experiences and taking retail business to another
dimension.
Join us at the Retail Systems Multi-channel conference on 20
September for the exclusive first reveal of the top 100 movers
and Shakers.
Vote now: www.k3moversandshakers.com
Don’t underestimate the change involved
Today’s era of buy any product, anytime, anywhere really
does start to change the rhythms of the retail week, the retail
seasons and the retail calendar. Has the profile of a typical retail
RS
supplement
Speed is king
In true multi-channel commerce,
different channels don’t compete
for attention – they complement
each other. So a compelling digital
experience enhances your brand as
well as directly boosting revenue.
Retailers know this, say dynaTrace
R
etailers use multi-channel e-commerce platforms like
hybris to make sure their product information is consistent
and appealing, however customers choose to browse it;
in a catalogue, through your website, on an iOS or Android
mobile app, or in-store. But more than presenting rich media, and
compelling and personalised information,you must ensure your
digital platforms perform to the standards customers expect.
Slow sites hurt revenue
Google services have set customers’ expectations of how a site
should perform extremely high. According to a recent piece
in the New York Times, Google have found that a load time of
longer than 400 milliseconds results in customers doing fewer
searches on a site – so Google develop for speed. In contrast,
imagine the revenue implications of slow performance; fewer
searches, translating into customers viewing fewer products.
As a result, less goes into the shopping cart.
Other studies are more explicit about the effect speed has
on digital commerce; research by Amazon suggests a 100
millisecond delay in page load translates to a one per cent loss in
revenue. Not only are users’ expectations of page load speeds
extremely high, they also want more content. Images, video,
colour swatches, recommendations, customer reviews and
ratings, tags and categorisation; users expect these as part of
a compelling shopping experience, and retailers provide them
hoping to raise conversion rates.
But providing this content is self-defeating if the customer
never sees it, if they’ve abandoned their carts because things
are taking too long to load.
More features = more complexity
Web 2.0 features, content delivery networks, cloud and big data;
the IT aspects of multi-channel commerce today are extremely
complex. No wonder 43 per cent of CIOs are concerned about
the ability of their IT departments to support business growth
in 2012. Getting a page or mobile application to respond within
400 ms already sounds like a tall order – and then consider
that only one third of your page load time is under your direct
control. Research shows customers who access sites through
newer devices, like tablets, get the worst of digital channels.
In a recent survey, four in 10 tablet users had experienced a
usability problem within the last 12 months . Among those that
experienced a problem, two thirds reported slow load times,
and more than four out of 10 experienced website crashes or
problems with website functions. This is despite the fact that
tablet users spend more, have higher average order values, and
higher or equivalent conversion rates.
Manage your transactions
You can get a grip on complexity by thinking about how fast
your user experience is and how it performs – in terms of
applications and transactions. The unified service your servers,
database, and social media plugins deliver to customers is your
application. Whenever a user makes a request of your
application, they’re carrying out a transaction. Examples include;
doing a search, enlarging a thumbnail, or paying for products
with a credit card. A transaction-based approach to making
your application faster forces you to view things from the
perspective of your end-user. Once you have full visibility into all
the transactions on your site you can start managing them. In
particular you can identify which transactions are the ones that
make you money, and put time and resources into optimising
them. Continuous monitoring of your application also allows you
to see when it’s slowing down and take action accordingly.
Application performance management
Compuware APM® is the industry’s leading solution for optimising the performance of web, non-web, mobile, streaming and
cloud applications. Driven by end-user experience, Compuware
APM provides the market’s only unified APM coverage across the
entire application delivery chain. Compuware APM helps customers deliver proactive problem resolution for greater customer
satisfaction, accelerate time-to-market for new application
functionality and reduce application management costs.
case study
RS
Great performance
Cars.com recently implemented
Compuware Application Performance
Management. They ran a multi-channel advertising campaign throughout
the Super Bowl and experienced an
incredible 1,800 per cent more visitors to their site
A
t times during the Super Bowl up to 1,800 per cent
more visitors than usual suddenly hit Cars.com’s
site on all sorts of devices and browsers. Without
application performance management, this would cause a
site to crash – but Cars.com stayed online and kept customer
satisfaction levels high.
Top 10 questions to ask when selecting an application performance solution
1. Is your application achieving your business goals?
Do you know which transactions on your site are making
money? You need to capture full details of every transaction
to make informed decisions and measure yourself against
business goals. It’s possible to capture this information without performance suffering – so why leave yourself blind?
2. Are your customers happy?
Understand how your customers interact with your site.
Access real-time information on geo-location, browser type,
device, click-path, revenue and conversion rates. The better
you can measure, the better you can manage and optimise.
5. Are you prepared for potential issues?
Ensure you can monitor user transactions as they happen in
real-time 24/7/365. You should be able to identify and solve
issues before they affect your entire customer base.
6. Does your application scale with your business?
Is your business growing rapidly, or does it spike at certain
times of the year? Use automated architecture and regression analysis to see scalability problems before they go live.
7. Can you find and fix it fast?
Ensure that you capture and record detailed diagnostic
data on your live application so developers don’t waste time
re-creating problems.
8. Can you rely on your business partners?
Monitor third party services your applications rely on, like
payment processing or external content providers, to
ensure they are not slowing down and driving users away.
9. Are your application and business strategy and
priorities aligned?
Use an executive dashboard to understand how your website
is contributing to business success and how performance
affects conversion rates.
10. Are you there yet?
Don’t just focus on finding and fixing. Performance depends
heavily on code and architecture – make sure it’s written in
to new development plans.
3. Are you top in your industry?
Benchmark your site performance against an e-commerce
index (Gomez – www.gomez.com/uk-retail) to clearly understand what users expectations are in your market.
4. Do you know where it hurts?
Understand how transactions work, from customers’ browsers through to the database so you know what’s working,
and what you’ve got to improve.

Take Your - Retail Systems

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