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Retailers wary of mobile, says PortalTech, but they’ll all be using it come 2011
Many retailers are yet to be convinced about mobile, with most of the naysayers seeing it more as a threat from outside, rather than something they can harness themselves, or having no clear ROI. So reveals e-commerce consultants PortalTech, following 18 months of talks with many of its retail clients who have already embraced e-commerce.
That said, PortalTech is convinced that every major retailer in the developed world will be using mobile aggressively by the end of 2010.
Most retailers know that mobile has a role in retail and marketing, says the company’s director Mark Adams, but most equate mobile retail with price comparison services run by third parties that take business out of their premises and off their websites, rather than converting browsers to sales.
“We need to educate them that using mobile to drive people to websites and into stores is the way to harness the power of these services, not to worry about price sites taking people away,” he says. “And the front runners are starting to see that mobile is the glue that holds together their websites, their marketing collateral and their stores and are keen to embrace it.”
The fear amongst retailers was backed up in January when research into Christmas shoppers by eDigital Research suggested that one in four people were using phone to research goods for sale cheaper elsewhere while in store. A further one in ten also used mobile to see where else they could find certain goods when the store they were in was out of stock.
PortalTech believes, however, that this is an opportunity for retailers rather than a threat. “Early adopters are looking at how to develop their own mobile services that scan barcodes and in store promos to deliver a much richer, more online-like experience to customers in-store,” says Adams. “We have been talking to some 20 or so leading retailers about doing just this with our ‘stripeylines’ app, so it will come.”
Stripeylines was an app rolled out by PortalTech in February to demonstrate what was possible with a bar-code reading app. Initially targeted at consumers, it soon gained interest among retail brands keen to utilise it to make the shopping experience richer, says Adams.
“Apps like this certainly show what can be done and stripeylines can always be white labelled and licenced out to retailers who want to use and enhance it,” he says. “But, as with all apps, retailers are still struggling to see what the ROI might be: there is still no data on how such things increase footfall and generate greater conversion of that footfall into sales at the moment,” he says.
So, analysts out there: if you want something to do, take a look at how mobile can impact on in-store sales and put us all out of our misery.
Related newsPiece of piste: Alpine ski pass iPhone app makes skiing easier
Bad news for those of you heading off to the slopes to get away from the trials and tribulations of e- and m-commerce for a few days: SKIDATA has launched an iPhone app that allows you to buy your ski pass on your handset in Swiss alps.
Using SKIDATA’s online reservation technology, skiers can now buy their ski pass from their iPhone, load it onto an RFID card – a Keycard or a Swatch Snowpass – and use this card to directly access all ski lifts. This process – which is highly convenient when on the go – helps avoid waiting in line at ticketing offices and is the perfect complement to online reservations, says the company, no doubt adjusting its goggles and then whooshing off down the piste.
During this first phase and until the end of the season, several leading ski resorts in the Swiss Alps are selling ski passes (valid up to 3 days) on the new iSkiPass selling application. To take advantage of this, skiers simply need to download the iSkiPass application and enter their personal data along with the number of cards needed. Buying one or several ski passes takes only a few seconds. As soon as the application delivers the confirmation number, access to the ski resort lifts is authorized. More devices will be supported by next season, says SKIDATA.
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Hypertag looks for brands to trial proximity marketing
In an effort to grow awareness of proximity marketing – where retailers can use Bluetooth or other mobile technologies to send offers and inducements to consumers when they near their premises or pass by an advertisement – proximity specialist Hypertag is looking for volunteers to run a number of proximity marketing campaigns through 2010 for free.
Hypertag, along with its partners JC Decaux, PSI Advertising and others, has been working on bringing this innovative marketing solution to retailers for the past 18 months. Evaluation stage market trials have now begun with several major brands, including CNN and Burger King, to finely tune the system to meet the needs of brands and agencies.
Hypertag is now looking for more global brands that wish to participate in these trials over the course of 2010. If selected, you will have exclusive access to this new accountable and interactive advertising service, which has already enjoyed proven success in raising sales and footfall. Most importantly, the selected brands will be able to influence future service development to meet their specific needs.
If you are interested in being considered as a trial partner, please contact Jonathan Morgan as soon as possible.
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John Lewis brings ‘bricks and clicks’ growth under one board director
John Lewis has added retail development, format development and retail implementation responsibilities to commercial director Andrea O’Donnell’s current responsibilities for multichannel and online selling. The appointment brings together ‘bricks’ and ‘clicks’ growth under one director for the first time, says the department store chain, in “a shift that recognises changing customer shopping habits.”
“John Lewis has made no secret of the fact it intends to build on its multichannel strengths. By putting accountability for bricks and clicks in one area, our board now has the best possible structure to deliver the division’s ambitious plans,” says Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis. “Andrea has driven forward our multichannel offering and overseen the very successful relaunch of our fashion website so is ideally placed to deliver innovation across all our channels and formats.”
“I am delighted and really excited about this new opportunity,” says O’Donnell. “Last year saw John Lewis open its first ‘at home’ shop and there are many more opportunities to bring John Lewis closer to our customers. I am looking forward to finding new ways to ensure that the experience is seamless, no matter how people choose to shop.”
Related newsAsos provides followers with an easy way to follow fashion
Asos has launched a new Twitter-based service that provides customers with an easy way to follow fashion brands, bloggers and A-List celebrities.
ASOS Follows Fashion is presented as a Twitter dashboard, with the latest tweets from fashion leaders and insiders featured under six categories — The Brands, The Bloggers, The A-List, The Talent, The Insiders and The Fash Pack.
The site was created for Asos by web agency Adaptive Lab and is designed to help fashion consumers discover interesting fashion tweeters and view real-time fashion news and stories. “Encouraging users to help curate the list of featured tweeters, the application also invites them to share their view and highlight any accounts that should be added,” says Adaptive Lab.
Related newsOnline retail sales to grow 11% a year across EU for next five years
Online retail within the largest European Union nations in Western Europe will grow at an 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years, reaching a total value of €114 billion by 2014, according to a new forecast from Forrester Research.
The US will also see double-digit growth over the same period, says Forrester, although at a slightly lower rate of 10% a year, to reach just under $249 billion by 2014.
“Much of the overall retail sector’s growth in both the US and the EU over the next five years will come from the internet,” says Forrester Research’s Sucharita Mulpuru. “To maximize that growth, ebusiness professionals will have to help enable a multichannel strategy that responds to consumers’ increased desire to hop between the offline and online worlds and their increasing mobile and social behaviors. The retail innovators over the next five years will demonstrate customer enablement across all touchpoints, not just via a PC-based web browser.”
Despite consumers’ increasing use of the Web to research products before purchasing, most retailers still fall short on offering a seamless cross-channel experience, say the analysts. According to Forrester’s data, while 82% of US online consumers are satisfied with buying experiences that began and ended in a store, satisfaction drops to 61% for consumers who began their research online and purchased in a store.
Forrester’s European Union forecast encompasses 17 Western European nations and includes a country-by-country breakdown of online retail across the seven largest markets: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
Highlights of Forrester’s ‘Western European Online Retail Forecast, 2009-2014′ include:
- Increased online tenure, improved access, and greater promotion by retailers will drive the number of online shoppers in Europe from 141 million in 2009 to 190 million by 2014. The average spend per online shopper will rise from €483 in 2009 to €601 in 2014.
- Books, event tickets, and clothing are the top three categories purchased online in the majority of Western Europe.
- Among the three largest EU markets, online retail will grow at a 10% CAGR over the next five years in the UK; 9% in Germany; and 13% in France.
“There is a clear divide between the countries of northern and southern Europe regarding online retail adoption,” explains Forrester’s Patti Freeman Evans. “While nearly half of UK residents regularly make a purchase online, a mere 10% of online Spaniards and 11% of online Italians do so today. Still, with compound annual growth rates approaching 20% in markets like Spain, emerging European ecommerce markets are poised for a vigorous period of growth.”
Related news57% of retailers are failing to comply with PCI DSS requirements
New research conducted by Redshift Research on behalf of IT security and compliance automation provider Tripwire has found that 89% of companies are not currently audited and certified as PCI DSS compliant.
The survey, which sampled the views of 100 retail, financial services and hospitality businesses, also found that 35% of respondents still do not fully understand PCI compliance requirements and nearly a third of respondents do not know if they will be compliant by the September 2010 deadline.
Although the majority of respondents say they are confident about achieving PCI compliance, the research survey found that 32% are currently responding to weaknesses that were identified in their PCI DSS pre-audit, 27% of companies will put off becoming PCI compliant for as long as possible, 14% have completed a PCI DSS pre-audit but have not undertaken any further action and 14% are not compliant and are not in the process of becoming so. In addition, 39% of respondents believe that credit card security should be the problem of the credit card companies.
Smaller businesses are lagging behind larger organisations in terms of PCI readiness. 56% of Level 4 merchants and 36% of Level 3 merchants do not fully understand PCI requirements. In contrast, only 14% of Level 2 merchants do not fully understand the requirements, while all Level 1 merchants said that they fully understand the requirements.
When asked whether they were confident about meeting the September 2010 deadline, 21% of Level 3 merchants said they would not be compliant in time and a further 25% of Level 3 merchants did not know if they would be compliant in time. 7% of Level 4 merchants said they would not be compliant, and a further 31% said they did not know if they would be compliant. Only 11% of Level 2 merchants were unsure about achieving compliance, while all Level 1 merchants were confident about meeting the deadline.
Comparing the results by industry sector, 57% of retailers admitted that they still do not fully understand PCI requirements, compared to 27% of finance companies and 27% of leisure companies. 20% of finance companies said they would not be compliant by the September 2010 deadline, and a further 20% of finance respondents did not know if they would meet the deadline. Furthermore, 25% of retailers did not know if they would be compliant, while only 9% of leisure companies were unsure about hitting the deadline.
“The research demonstrates that there is now a growing awareness of the importance of PCI DSS standards, however with only a small minority of companies currently certified as compliant many organisations are facing an uphill battle to meet the September 2010 deadline,” says Tripwire’s Rob Warmack. “In particular, Level 3 and 4 merchants lag Level 1 and 2 merchants in terms of PCI readiness, suggesting that many smaller businesses have to date perceived PCI standards to be the preserve of larger organisations.”
Related newsNon-food non-store sales up 15.5% in February
The latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show that internet, mail order and telephone sales were 15.5% higher in February 2010 than in February 2009. The very cold and wet weather, and shoppers receiving catalogues whose delivery had been delayed by snow, helped to boost sales, says the BRC.
Overall UK retail sales rose 2.2% on a like-for-like basis from February 2009, when sales had dropped 1.8%, hit by snow and consumer caution. On a total basis, sales rose 4.5% against only 0.1% growth in February 2009.
“This is good growth,” says Sharon Hardiman, the BRC’s head of non-store retailing. “Slightly up on January and up on February a year ago.”
“Some of it was a catch-up on sales held over from the previous month, particularly where catalogues were late reaching customers,” she explained. “Promotions and clearances helped but also the range of goods and retailers available online is still expanding and customers are steadily becoming more comfortable with this way of shopping.”
Related newsJumpStart: Get up to speed on ecommerce platforms — last few places still available
Our Internet Retailing JumpStart event, providing online retailers with a lowdown on specifying and buying ecommerce platforms, will be held in central London tomorrow, Wednesday 10 March, from 8:30am until 1:30pm.
Internet Retailing has gathered together industry experts from six leading suppliers to look at all aspects of choosing an ecommerce platform. Speakers will cover the key considerations to support growth stages, cash and capital requirements, preferences for ownership versus software-as-a-service and how to balance the needs and strengths of legacy systems in the overall offering to customers.
The six suppliers taking part are 10CMS, BT Fresca, Claranet, Portaltech, Intershop and Salmon.
The event, which is free to attend, is designed for — and open to — senior executives at online and multichannel retailers only. A few places are still available so, if you would like to attend, register online today.
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