A survey from Worldpay showed that Britons spend a quarter of their money online and one in six Britons do their shopping on a smartphone. Adam Stewart at Rakuten’s Play.com argues that whilst e-commerce is growing rapidly, a multichannel approach remains important.
The growth of online and mobile commerce is clearly significant, and the fact that 25% of spending now occurs online points to the importance of this channel for retailers, and how willingly consumers have embraced it. Many will herald this milestone as yet another nail in the coffin for traditional bricks and mortar shopping, but this would be to take a far too simplified view of the situation.
Retailers should in fact view online as a powerful channel that is complementary to traditional retail and that can be a powerful mechanism for driving shoppers towards physical retail outlets. The boundaries between online and offline worlds are becoming increasingly blurred, and retailers should look to adopt a multichannel approach which fuses their digital and real-world offerings.
From a retail standpoint, the multichannel customer is much more valuable than the bricks and mortar customer, but the bricks and mortar experience is something many consumers still cherish.
The key for merchants is to combine the flexibility and utility of the multichannel approach with the customer service and tangibility of being in a physical shop. By bringing together these elements, retailers will be able to offer a more compelling service to their customers.
By Adam Stewart
Marketing Director
Rakuten’s Play.com
www.play.com
