Marketing Articles

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.”

1. Waitrose.com adds John Lewis kitchen and homeware products
2. John Lewis picks Sterling for integrated cross-channel management solution
3. John Lewis reports ecommerce sales up 24.2%, plans fashion site

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.

1. Asos goes live with community service
2. Sales up 47% at Asos, new delivery options to be added
3. John Lewis reports ecommerce sales up 24.2%, plans fashion site

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.”

1. UK retail and travel sales to reach £54bn by 2014
2. UK consumers were responsible for 30% of all European online retail sales in 2009
3. Online grocery shopping to double in five years

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.”

1. UK retailers are failing to make the most of social media marketing
2. New survey reports on the state of play for US online retailers
3. Internet retailers losing sales by offering too few payment options

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.”

1. Non-food, non-store sales up 26.5% in December
2. BRC: Internet and mail order sales up 12.3% in February
3. Non-food non-store sales rose 19.2% in January, says BRC

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.

1. JumpStart: Get up to speed on ecommerce platforms
2. JumpStart — 11 June on eCommerce Platforms
3. JumpStart: Get up to speed on payments and fraud solutions

French car maker Peugeot is to launch a mobile advertising campaign in conjunction with OMDUK, Peugeot’s media agency, that consists of a new expandable format for mobile, composed of three clickable sections promoting the 107, 207 and 308 models of the car.

Upon clicking on one of the three car models, mobile users will be directed through to a dedicated microsite where they will be able to find more information on the car, locate their nearest dealer, book a test drive and request a brochure.

Charged with designing and building the banner advert and the three individual microsites, tech company YOC has created an expandable advertising format akin to that offered already by 4th Screen Advertising.

Accessible on the iPhone, Android handsets, BlackBerry devices and other smartphones, the Peugeot banner ad will be promoted across the YOC network, which receives more than 600 million monthly page impressions and reaches more than 35 million unique mobile users.

Jody Bates, Media Manager at Peugeot says: “We have been able to introduce another exciting element to our mobile advertising portfolio and can now provide our customers with detailed information on a range of our models whenever they want it and wherever they are. It’s great to see mobile internet deliver on its promise of being able to offer relevant, timely and valuable information to our customers.”

“Mobile internet is really coming alive and the promise of optimised content is finally here. Once only accessible online, we’ve brought expandable ads to the mobile enabling brands to deliver rich, unique and tailored content,” says Christian Louca, Managing Director of YOC UK. “With our experience in developing and operating more than 400 mobile portals in Europe, we’re a perfect fit for Peugeot to help expand its mobile presence.”

“The very nature of expandable adverts brings mobile internet to life for advertisers. We’ve been championing this format for a long time now and it’s great to see it come to fruition. With expandable adverts, brands can deliver high quality, interactive content; unhampered by format restrictions,” said Alex Newman, Head of Mobile at OMDUK.

1. Orange launches targeted mobile advertising service
2. Ikea reports results of mobile couponing campaign
3. Only 24% of UK consumers access the internet from their mobile phone

Bazaarvoice has provided an indication of just how far the market for customer reviews has now expanded, revealing that it has served more than 100 billion impressions of its user-generated Reviews, Answers and Stories services since its launch.

The company, founded five years ago, says that 80% of consumers are now seeking user-generated review content to guide purchases. Bazaarvoice now has 750 clients, operating in 25 languages and 36 countries.

“Recent years have seen many of the conversations traditionally held in person increasingly digitised online to the point where they now widely influence purchase decisions,” says Andy Leaver, international vice president at Bazaarvoice. “Reaching 100 billion impressions illustrates that brands appreciate this and are rewriting their textbooks on marketing and merchandising to utilise the business benefits that user-generated content brings.”

1. [DE] Impact of user-generated content growing
2. UK consumers accessed 24 million online customer reviews on Cyber Monday alone
3. Comet adds consumer-generated product information service

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has published a new discussion paper which calls on marketers to examine where digital marketing may be heading in the next few years and asks leading practitioners how they think companies can thrive in the digital marketplace while making sure they get the right levels of ROI from their activities.

‘Shape the Agenda’ advances the digital discussion by suggesting that the key to future success lies in appreciating the fact that people self-select their own digital ‘villages’ in which to live.

“It’s a myth that people explore the world the internet has to offer — the reality is that most people stick to eight or nine websites that they regularly visit,” says Mark Stuart, head of research at the Chartered Institute of Marketing. “This means that businesses need to inhabit the spaces their customers inhabit in order to build the brand, create awareness and generate a relationship with the customer. There are some good examples in the paper including Waitrose successfully doing this, but American Apparel getting it wrong on Second Life.”

“The need to create a dialogue with customers is easy to say in theory; how do you do it in practice?,” he continues. “Practising marketers need to live online the way their customers do; that’s the best way to create offerings that customers will like and respond to, versus being intrusive of personal spaces and becoming an unwanted third party. It means you find insights that lead to products and services. It also means you spot problems on the horizon and have the time to deal with them.”

The paper also argues that a distinction can be drawn between collecting data and invading privacy. Data can be used to target customers with offers they want; yet marketers have a challenge on their hands to show that this data is anonymous.

Readers can obtain a free copy of the Shape the Agenda paper by sending an email to info@cim.co.uk.

1. Consumers don’t hunt down brands on the web, but stick with what they know, warns CIM
2. Webtrends releases online marketing model
3. Four out of five online retailers have digital marketing headaches

New research from cashback site Fatcheese.co.uk has revealed that almost a third (31%) of Britons rarely or never pay full price when shopping, as they take advantage of a plethora of vouchers, discounts and cash-back services. Fatcheese has labelled this new breed of consumer the ‘lemon squeezers’ — shoppers that will do anything to secure the lowest price and best deal.

The average shopper now spends one to two hours a week searching for the best prices and hunting down vouchers for two-for-one deals and money-off shopping discounts, the research found.

And one in twenty (6%) Britons are hardcore bargain hunters, spending more than five hours each week surfing the net and shopping around for the lowest prices and best deals. These Lemon Squeezers feel disappointed and frustrated (69%) if they are forced to pay full price for an item — and, for some, it has a serious psychological impact, leaving them feeling physically ill.

The research also found that:

• 9% always choose stores where they can save money
• A further 28% usually choose stores where they can use a discount or offer
• 22% always or usually select a restaurant where they will not have to pay full price

The research also includes some fascinating quotes indicating just how far consumers will now go to save a little money — and how quickly a business can lose custom if it doesn’t offer a discount. Consumer comments include:

• “I left a well-known burger restaurant because the couple next to us had a half price voucher and I couldn’t cope with sitting next to them and paying full price.”
• “I drove an extra twenty miles to get petrol at 5p per litre less… before realising the distance driven cost more than the saving.”
• “I got up at 04:30, two hours earlier than I needed, to save £20 on my flight
• “Bought enough anti-perspirant for two years because it was seriously reduced.”
• “I stayed up all night for three days in a row to enter an online competition that had a winner every hour as I thought less people would play at night. I won £200 for three sleepless nights.”

“Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy, taking advantage of the internet to track down the cheapest prices and money-off discounts.

“Some consumers may face a nasty shock if retailers and restaurants stop offering money-off discounts, having become conditioned to 2for1 pizzas and 10% shopping discounts,” says Ahmed Zaman, co-founder of Fatcheese.co.uk. “There are millions of UK shoppers that refuse to pay full price for any purchases unless they absolutely have to.”

1. PriceGrabber launches free delivery comparison site
2. The shape of Christmas future: Over half of Brits will up online spending for Xmas 2009
3. Which? launches price comparison service

A detailed investigation into multi-channel retailing in North America and in the UK, conducted by Martec on behalf of BT and Epicor, has found that there are significant discrepancies between North American and UK retailers.

Key findings from the research include:

• Transactional web sites are now the norm, with 94% of retailers interviewed now having an online store. 69% have call centres and 47% have catalogues. Kiosk usage is much higher in North America, however, at 43% vs 10% in the UK and mobile commerce is more widely used in North America too (23% against 5% in the UK).
• The biggest concerns retailers have about multichannel retailing are increasing customer conversion rates, maintaining information about customers across channels and motivating store personnel.
• In terms of organisation, the most common division to be responsible for non-store sales is e-commerce (36% of retailers), followed by marketing and buying and merchandising. Within each functional area practice varies as to whether separate e-commerce teams exist. The majority of logistics functions do not have separate teams for e-commerce as opposed to store distribution. The majority of marketing departments do run separate teams while buying and merchandising and IT split differently by geography.
• The researchers identified a marked difference in retailers that have a separate warehouse for non-store channels between the UK and North America. 67% of UK retailers prefer a dedicated warehouse for non-store business compared to only 46% in North America.
• Far more North American retailers carry a consistent assortment in all channels than in the UK. The researchers put this down to the fact that most North American retailers have operated in multiple channels for longer. However, nearly twice as many UK retailers carry the same categories online as in store compared to their North American counterparts.
• The majority of retailers provide consistent pricing across all sales channels (80%). Of those who don’t, it is generally by design, not because of systems restrictions.
• Retailers are pretty satisfied with the level of integration of their processes across channels. Supply chain and buying processes and systems scored fairly well, with lower scores for marketing and business intelligence.
• Only 45% of retailers have a cross channel order management system but only 10% plan to implement one, leaving a large proportion of retailers with no visibility of and access to stock across channels.
• North American retailers are ahead of the UK regarding a single view of the customer. 60% of US retailers have a single view of the customer compared to 62% of UK retailers who do not. US retailers are also better at capturing customer data in store.
• Cross channel cannibalization is not seen as a problem but only 25% of retailers measure it. In spite of the lack of information, however, 82% do not consider it a problem.

Readers can download a copy of the full research findings from BT Expedite’s website.

1. Thomas Pink and Warehouse pick ’single view’ ecommerce system
2. NFC phones could deliver a single view of customers across multiple channels
3. Improving customer satisfaction improves retailers’ stock market value say researchers

The second annual Global Retail CIO Survey, sponsored by Aldata Solution and IBM, has found that multi-channel CRM is now the top priority for retail CIOs around the world.

Multi-channel CRM was ranked as the most important application by respondents to the survey, with 42% saying they have yet to implement multi-channel CRM, but plan to do so within the next three years. 38% of CIOs surveyed plan to implement loyalty systems — with customer data linked to buying patterns and behaviour — within the next three years.

The survey showed that IT budgets appear to be recovering after the initial downturn at the start of last year’s recession, with averages for all retailers at 1.3% of sales compared to 1% last year. Twenty-six percent of respondents expect their IT budget to increase; the same figure as last year. However, while last year’s survey showed that increase to relate to projects already underway, this year’s interviews revealed more aggressive plans to implement new systems. The survey of 109 retail CIOs and IT Directors in both the Americas and Europe was undertaken in Q4 2009 by Martec International.

Optimising the product/place/promotion offer is becoming an increasingly critical element of retail IT spend, the survey found. More than 50% of retailers will be upgrading, replacing or implementing new systems in areas such as automated replenishment (52%), assortment optimisation (58%), promotions optimisation (56%) and promotions management (54%), with a further 46% looking to invest in demand forecasting. Master Data Management (MDM) has the highest planned implementation of all applications studied in the survey, both across the enterprise (35%) and for supplier management (28%).

“The top line statistics from this year’s survey, and indeed last year’s, suggest that the retail sector has survived the recession remarkably effectively,” says Allan Davies, CMO of Aldata Solution. “The truth is, though, that while the downturn hasn’t halted retailers’ IT spend, it has certainly changed the way that money is spent. Gone are the days of end-to-end rip and replace projects, and instead we’re seeing a big focus on process optimisation. Retail CIOs are not afraid of investing in new projects, but they need to see a quick return on investment. And by quick, I’m talking about months, not years.”

Readers can download the full survey findings free of charge from Aldata’s website.

1. Guest Comment: What’s in store for multi-channel retail?
2. UK marketers come top for segmented, multi-channel marketing
3. Stores are still the key driver of customer satisfaction in multi-channel retailing, Mori survey finds

Direct marketing specialist ExactTarget has acquired corporate Twitter service CoTweet.

The aim is to create “the first enterprise solution to manage social media, email marketing and mobile marketing by combining the power of ExactTarget and CoTweet”.

“Together we’ll provide businesses a complete solution to tie together all forms of interactive communication — email, mobile, social, sites,” says the official announcement.

“Increasingly customers and partners around the world have asked for a solution to integrate social media more closely with other interactive marketing channels,” it continues. “Combining CoTweet’s proven results and expertise in social media with ExactTarget’s enterprise interactive marketing platform, we are delivering global brands a powerful and complete solution to communicate with customers and prospects across all interactive marketing channels.”

CoTweet lets companies manage up to five Twitter accounts through a single CoTweet login and enables a number of co-workers to all work as a team posting news and responses on company Twitter accounts. Customers include Dell, Starbucks, Microsoft — and Twitter.

1. Dell doubles its Twitter sales
2. Who should be responsible for social media — PR or marketing?
3. Debenhams Twitter try-out was “really positive”, further activity planned

The CeBIT trade fair at Hanover in Germany, the largest computer tradeshow in the world, has always been chilly this time of year. So like always everybody rushes into the warm halls – there are 23 to choose from. After the traditionally slow first day the number of visitors picked up significantly on the second day. It was the usual game of shove and push in the aisles of halls 3 to 7, traditonally reserved for software solutions and research.

CeBIT 2010 at Hanover increased its number of visitors by 20%

“The number of visitors has increased by about 20% compared to last year”, said Ernst Raue, CEO of the Deutsche Messe AG, who organized the trade fair. Raue expects the number of visitors to pick up yet again at the weekend when a lot of school pupils and students are expected to search for the latest and greatest gadgets in the mobile, music, and gaming market represented here.

Ernst Raue, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG

Indeed, a lot of young people could already be spotted on the first two days. They are not the ubiquitous“free bees” on the hunt for giveaways but youngsters trying to get information on the latest developments and products. For example, Microsoft Office 2010 and SkyDrive, as well als the brandnew “PC for Children” that Microsoft officials presented to chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel (she is a physiscist, not a physician) on her traditional walk around the halls.

The evening before Dr. Angela Merkel had opened the fair to the general public, together with Spains prime minister José Zapatero. Spain is this year’s partner country, among the top five hightech markets of Europe. Last year’s partner “country” was California, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, naturally, said “Hasta la vista, baby!” – and presented a sophisticated robot. Zapatero, however, not being a terminator, did not repeat this phrase but invited everybody to the stalls of Spanish exhibitors – and to the beaches of his beautiful country.

The increased number of visitors was also due to the fact that two new partner conferences were taking place at CeBIT, the music fair “CeBIT sounds!” (slogan: “IT meets Music”), and the SAP World Tour. The latter was especially interesting after the change of SAP’s top management shortly before the start of the fair. The two new co-CEO’s Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann-Snabe demonstrated affection for each other and vowed to be having fun in their new position. They also showed new products and solutions, especially for the mobile market.

Since e-commerce comprises quite a few disciplines, it did not have a special hall reserved to the pertinent technologies and solutions. Under the labels of “Connected Living” (this year’s CeBIT slogan) and Webciety Web-based solutions could be found. To e-Commerce was only a tiny corner in hall 6 reserved where “Internet Experts” were to be found. For comparison’s sake: Half a hall (no. 8 ) was reserved for Green IT alone.

In interviews with security experts from Symantec and Trend Micro in security hall 11 it became clear that data and payment security, identity protection, phishing, botnets, etc. are growing concerns to e-shop operators and technology & solution providers. In order to implement security measures against such threats e-retailers have to increase their investment significantly (let alone the consumers).

In order to reduce the amount of this investment a growing number of e-retailers take recourse to managed host services or cloud services that take care not only of e-mail scanning, but also of website scanning and data backup . Not surprisingly, Symantec, Trend Micro and other vendors show rapidly growing numbers of clients in this area (+20% annually).

It remains to be seen if the organizers of CeBIT trade fair can reach the number of ca. 400.000 visitors they had last year. But the crowds walking the aisles of the 23 open halls prove that the economic crisis is over when it comes to gathering infoormation and looking for investment opportunities. Quite a number of exhibitors have testified to having made good business at the fair until Wednesday (March 4th), when the first half term was over.

If the concept of the organizers – diversification and innovation as well as partnering with new conferences – turns out to be a success this year’s CeBIT will send fresh and powerful impulses into the market, to enterprises and to consumers alike. The number of specialized conferences has grown (Mobile World in Barcelona, CES in Las Vegas, both focussing on end consumers), but currently (and hopefully for the next 25 years) there is only one general tradeshow comprising offerings for both businesses and consumers– CeBIT at chilly Hanover.

1. EuroCIS 2010 trade fair for IT and Security in Retail: opens 2nd to 4th of March
2. [DE] E-commerce Conference 2010 on Tour in German Cities
3. GSMA Mobile World Congress: impressions.