Archive for the ‘Ecommerce & Online Marketing’ Category:
01 Feb
At BT Fresca, we’ve just had a peek at the stats from this year’s online Christmas sales. They reveal that retailers delivered their best ever trading figures on our FrescaCommerce Platform during Christmas 2011, with daily sales up an average 46 per cent on last year. 30 November 2011, ‘Whopping Wednesday’, was the most popular shopping day, coinciding with industrial action by many workers across the UK, followed by ‘Manic Monday’ (28 November) and ‘Cyber Monday’ (5 December).
Predictions from some commentators that Christmas Day would be more popular than Boxing Day (when post-Christmas sales are officially launched) were dumbfounded, with 26 December continuing to be the most popular post-Christmas shopping day.
We work with a whole host of retailers, having created online stores for leading fashion and lifestyle brands such as Coast, Great Little Trading Company, Habitat, Jane Norman, JJB Sports, Karen Millen, Matalan, Matches Fashion, Oasis, The Perfume Shop, Snow+Rock, Thomas Pink, TJ Hughes and Warehouse.
This was a record breaking Christmas period with the highest ever weekly, daily and hourly traffic volumes and transactions, as shoppers took full advantage of promotional activity. The two week period at the end of November and the beginning of December was considerably busier than the pronounced spike experienced in 2010. This Christmas also saw a growing trend for ‘early week’ shopping with Sunday evenings and Mondays being particularly busy. Another trend is the increasing use of ‘flash sales’ to drive traffic.
2011 showed a differing trend to previous years with a number of peaks in orders volumes as opposed to just one. It’s also interesting that the week leading up to Christmas, historically a ‘no-go’ for online retailers, is now coming into its own. Even at 20 December, there were still high order volumes, at least as high as the beginning of November, in part due to sharpened delivery strategies, giving customers confidence their orders will arrive before the big day.
While total order numbers have grown in 2011, average values of orders have dipped for many retailers, reflecting the high levels of promotional activity and re-enforcing the trend that more and more value retailers are moving online and promoting this channel to their customers.
Whether or not people were striking or working from home or simply unable to get to work because of the industrial action it seems many decided November 30 was a good time to do their Christmas shopping online.
Compared to Christmas 2010, Christmas 2011 represented Year on Year (YoY) changes in:
• Order Volume of +46%
• Order Value of +20%
• Average Order Value of -18%
Compared with last year, 2011 represented Year on Year (YoY) changes in:
• Order Volume of +58%
• Order Value of +32%
• Average Order Value of -17%
Written by Richard Vining, Head of FCP Performance
16 Nov
OK, that’s not strictly true. But when retailers got together at BT Tower recently to discuss the e-commerce journey, they were all in agreement about two things: the term e-commerce just doesn’t do justice to everything that it now incorporates and, although it’s a journey, there’s no final destination to aim for.
1. E-commerce doesn’t cover the half of it
It’s not just e-commerce anymore. In a really short space of time, we’ve gone from e-commerce to multichannel to cross-channel to merged channels to… what? Forrester suggests “agile commerce” as a catch-all for the rest of the alphabet (including, e- m- and F- commerce).
In joining up the channels, it seems e-commerce will exist as a separate discipline in a few years. But what does that actually mean for retailers?
Phil Heaton from relative newcomers Getthelabel.com, talked about creating an online business and building it up to a market leader in just three years.
Phillip Heaton, Getthelabel.com, presenting at the Next Generation Event, BT Tower
In that short space of time, he’s been astounded by the changes: “Customer expectations around delivery, for example, have changed dramatically since we began. We had what could be considered an appropriate delivery model for our business at the time, but with 90-minute fulfilment and tailored timeslots around now, we know we have to change to meet current expectations.”
2. We will never get “there”
The two most-used words at the event were e-commerce and journey. But a journey suggests a destination, unless you’re in e-commerce. Sarah Hughes joint MD at BT Fresca set the scene for the day: “We’re on a journey,” she said, “and we’ll never be nearly there.”
Sarah Hughes, BT Fresca, speaking at the Next Generation ecommerce event, BT Tower
Sound a bit daunting? Not according to Nadine Sharara, e-commerce director at Thomas Pink. Echoing the views of many in the audience, Nadine spoke enthusiastically and energetically about the never ending e-commerce journey. “I think about it, not so much as a journey,” she explained, “than as a travel experience.”
Nadine introduced the latest Thomas Pink on-site product videos and explained how these were now driving the in-store experience. And the products featured on the videos are flying off the shelves, both real and virtual, proving that a more engaging e-commerce experience is more than just cool eye candy.
Nadine Sharara, Thomas Pink, presenting at the Next Generation ecommerce event, BT Tower
The stats show that retailers who grasp this idea of an ongoing journey do better than those who get everything in place and sit back. “Your e-commerce investment needs tending,” says BT Fresca’s multichannel specialist Jason Shorrock, “you have to feed and water it.”
What else did we learn?
Most innovation in e-commerce is focused on channel integration and fulfilment. So ensuring that web orders can be picked up in store (offering an opportunity to up-sell) and integration with social channels, like Facebook, are essential.
Click and collect has been the kiss of life for the High Street. Almost all retailers have a transactional website. But retailers without a store footprint (even just a couple of flagships) look a little old fashioned. And multichannel retailers are faring better than pureplays in general.
This is a huge opportunity for multichannel retailers to fight back against pure e-commerce providers as they can provide better service, instant gratification and increasingly flexible delivery options. One of the best examples of this is Oasis, which offers a 90-minute delivery from store.
So e-commerce is just the beginning. Mix in a little multimedia, in-store wi-fi and social networking, sprinkle in some smart handheld devices and you’re there. Well, nearly there. For the moment…
Find out more about ecommerce & online marketing solutions from BT Expedite
18 Oct
The run up to the busiest time of the retail calendar officially started this weekend with the ten week countdown to Christmas! And here at BT Fresca the manic and mayhem has already started, we’ve been going off piste with Snow + Rock and going global with Aurora Fashions.
We constantly strive to help our customers, help their customers, but this week we’ve been especially hard at work playing Santa’s little helper to make the Christmas rush easier for everyone. The new mobile optimised Snow+Rock website has just gone live, making it easier for shoppers to place orders and browse on the go – fantastic if your planning to hit the slopes, or for last minute gift shopping and catching those bargains as soon as they hit the sales.
Around the globe, the Fresca fairies are busy sprinkling their e-commerce magic, already providing websites for Karen Millen, Oasis, Warehouse and Coast for the last five years in the UK and more recently going web optimised. We’ve now pushed them global launching the Karen Millen website in Germany as well as a joint website for Oasis, Warehouse and Coast where customers can shop across the brands all in one site!
Both sites are in local language that support local fulfilment, promotions, payment and customer service tailored for each specific country, and Aurora plan to roll out our platform across even more countries. The web sites will support local payment types such as direct bank transfer and invoice on delivery, and the capacity to manage fulfilment from a local distribution centre.
The Frescacommerce Platform is behind many of the world’s fastest growing and most successful e-commerce web sites. It aims to blend creativity with e-commerce best practice and to integrate back office functions like customer ordering, call centre and fulfilment, to maximise sales while giving customers an engaging online experience.
Hash Ladha, Aurora’s group multichannel director, said: “We are very impressed by the current FrescaCommerce Platform and BT’s development plans for the future. These will help underpin our own plans for growth in Europe, Asia-Pacific and beyond.”
We are very excited about these new sites going live and wish our customers all the best for the Christmas trading period.
06 Oct
The Internet Retailing conference (October 4th, Novotel, Hammersmith) always focusses on the latest on-line developments and this year revealed a growing chasm between the old and the new. What is different this time is that the new “old” is about old-fashioned, nothing to do with number of years trading.
Resting on the old-fashioned cliff-side are some relatively recent retailers, ASOS (founded in 2000), eBay (1995) together with an analog and digital media pioneer, HMV (1899). Staking claim to the new ground are traditional high street names such as Burberry (1856), Thomas Pink (1984), Aurora Fashions (Coast, 1996; Oasis, 1991 & Warehouse, 1976) mixed in with the cream of social networking Facebook (2004) and a revolutionary delivery company, Shutl (2008).
What sets them apart? A true appreciation of their customers’ multichannel lives.
For example, yesterday ex-ASOS visionary Hash Ladha, now 18 months in as multichannel director at Aurora Fashions announced the latest tranche of UK cities to be covered by his fashion industry leading 90 minute delivery service. By February 2012, 90% of the UK can order a dress late afternoon and be wearing it the same evening. Why does this make pure-play retailers like ASOS look old? Because ASOS do not have the nationwide store coverage to support this type of ship from store to home service. Nick Robertson, ASOS CEO, has long muted the possibility of a single ASOS store on Oxford Street, but even that’s a long way from the 50 or so stores required for pan-UK coverage.
The retail equivalent of Apple, Burberry’s recent tie-up with Salesforce.com underlines the absolute need to focus on your customer wherever she happens to be. In the same vein, presenting creative innovation yesterday, Nadine Sharara, e-commerce director at Thomas Pink, underscored the need for absolute quality and consistency of brand regardless of channel. The beautifully British Brideshead revisited theme of this years A/W campaign oozes the kind of high end luxury that thrives in the harshest recession. And the execution from store through to on-line is truly multichannel.
Of the keynotes that kicked off the conference yesterday, eBay sounded tired as it talked up its outlet channels and social media heritage. Conversely, head of Facebook commerce partnerships, Gavin Sathianathan, is effortlessly cool and unceasingly innovative as he describes the stories of the 800 million people that make up the Facebook world and the opportunities for retailers to join them.
So if e-commerce sounded old yesterday, true multichannel retailers are fresher than ever, buoyed by their years of trading and customer focus.
Gerald Maidment, Account Director
19 Jul
Now in its ninth year and sponsored by BT Expedite and BT Fresca for the third year running, Martec International has just published the IT in Retail Survey 2011-12. The study covers 150 of the largest retailers in the UK and represents something like 75% of all retail sales. Data is gathered by interview with CIOs or other executives responsible for IT and two versions of the report are published – the Top 100 Retailers and the Top 125 Non-Food Retailers.
The first key finding is that IT budgets as a percentage of sales have declined yet again. Now at 1% sales overall, they were 1.1% sales for the two previous years and 1.3% of sales for the 4 years before that. By segment, the range is wide with grocers averaging 0.7% sales and non-store retailers averaging 3.4%. Recent years have been tough for CIOs managing shrinking budgets, a problem compounded by the growing spend on e-commerce and mobile commerce applications.
E-Commerce sales were 8.5% of total sales for the non-food group, an increase of 9% on last year. For the top 100 retailers which includes: grocers, e-commerce sales were static at 6.3% sales. However, this is distorted by the fact that new entrants to e-commerce pulled the average down while established retailers grew their online sales. For the first time ever, two retailers said that they expected to do smaller online sales as a percentage of total sales, both companies with a high online share, which might start to indicate that for brick and mortar retailers moving online, somewhere in the range of 30%-40% of total sales is where the online share might top out.
2011 was the year that mobile commerce took off. Amongst the top 100, 16% are using mobile commerce already and 12% plan to in the next year. Amongst the top 125 non-food retailers 14% are using mobile commerce and 18% plan to in the next year. Kiosk usage is also expected to be a lot higher.
Martec asked retailers to identify their top spending priorities and for the first year ever, e-commerce was the front runner in the top 100 retailers and the top 125. Store systems came second in both cases but the percentage of retailers planning store systems improvements is well down on recent years.
Retailers have been forced to invest in e-commerce and mobile commerce and because of shrinking budgets they have had to cut elsewhere. In recent years there has been a rise in outsourcing and off-shoring though this year’s survey shows no growth in that area, probably because those inclined to do it have done so already. However, there are many retailers planning to replace or upgrade applications like merchandise management and supply chain and add applications like CRM and merchandise planning.
Martec believes that this year may be the last in which retailers can manage on reduced budgets and that they will have to start going up again soon. If 2012 is the year of the recovery, it will put greater pressure on retailers and their systems. The wise among us will start investing now to grab market share as the economy improves.
Blog post by Brian Hume, Managing Director – Martec International
For more information or to download a summary of the IT in Retail reports click here
06 Jun
What do you want, difficult challenges or beautiful problems?
If your answer is “neither, I’d prefer an easy life”, you’re probably not cut out for retail.
At last week’s BT Expedite and Fresca Retail Client Conference we had over 80 delegates from some of the UK’s (and the world’s) leading retailers lock themselves away for two days to get down to the real nitty-gritty of retail IT. It wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
This annual event is getting bigger – and better – every year. This year there were more retailer-led sessions, more technology demos and more user groups than ever before. We even had Kryten from Red Dwarf.
And there seems to be a little more optimism around again. We’re not completely out of the woods – it is retail we’re talking about here – but things are looking up.
Last year we gathered together like post-apocalyptic survivors, guiltily checking off the names of those who had gone under in the previous six months. We were in the midst of a massive economic downturn and all thought revolved around survival. So what’s changed?
Two things stood out: Social media and international expansion. It seems, like life, retail will always find a way.
The 40+ retailers who crammed into the first, steamy breakout session of the day highlighted this. During the session, Lyle & Scott’s Will Dymott outlined the brand’s website refresh and mobile focus, and ran through its social media strategy and successes. He presented himself as a bit out of touch with it all – drawing inspiration from the derision of his nieces – but it’s clear the success is no happy accident. Lyle & Scott has developed a ferociously loyal following – and there’s no great secret to it, as Will pointed out. If you’re going to get involved, get involved properly. So Lyle & Scott takes a very active part in their customers’ social networking. This takes in everything from organising Twitter races and underground music events to launching a Facebook commerce page.
More tips on launching a Facebook commerce page>
Designing for mobile e-commerce>
In the afternoon, another standing-room only session explored international expansion – with two retailers offering a different take on it. One, Aurora Fashions, has gone down the e-commerce route. The other, Aldo Group, is working through franchisees. Both have had successful years. Both have made mistakes – and have learned from them.
Five steps to successful international e-commerce>
And it was in this session that I heard about “a beautiful problem”. It summed up the whole mood at this year’s conference. And the nice thing is, we’re talking about the same old problems, but we’re looking at them in a different way. The world is no longer lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce out and crush you. We’re not automatically taking defensive measures. There’s a whole world of opportunity out there now – with no more difficult challenges, just lots of beautiful problems.
08 Feb
The massive swell of public support for Lush following an announcement that its e-commerce site had been targeted by hackers shows how loyal its customers are to the brand. But the whole episode made it clearer than ever that retailers need to meet the PCI DSS compliance standards – or face the penalties when things go wrong. Not all brands will be able to weather the storm as well as Lush. And while Lush has to be applauded for making the attack public – in line with its values of transparency and honesty – the PCI security standards forum has already started an investigation and a fine seems inevitable.
So how do you avoid getting into the same situation?
The web site was using a payment gateway, as is common practise, so we’re struggling to see the benefit to either the business or its customers of holding such comprehensive customer information that included credit card numbers. We strongly encourage our customers not to do this.
Having worked on PCI DSS related projects over the past three years now, this hacking has reinforced my personal belief that the best way for retailers to be compliant is to start by removing all customer data which has no value. Regarding, card data that is we recommend simply removing all of it from all systems other than the payment gateway.
By doing this you simplify the PCI requirement on day one. The retailer’s payment gateway should then either be updated to include encryption or removed outside of the retailer environment altogether, into a managed / hosted data centre.
If there is a business need and business case to keep any card related data for audit or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) purposes then implement tokenisation. This will ensure that the business need can be met without the risk of keeping the card numbers. This costs money but makes retailing a much less risky business.
Keep it simple and you’ll avoid the pitfalls of card data security.
Related articles:
About the Author: Kevin Burns is a PCI Consultant for BT Expedite. For more info on PCI, visit our website or contact Kevin.
01 Feb
I read last month that Facebook has now exceeded 500 million worldwide users and over 28 million in the UK. Looking across all BT Fresca clients, Facebook is in the top 10 traffic sources to all sites.
It’s now as important as email communications in a brand’s overall marketing strategy. But, it’s really interesting how different retailers approach it.
Retailers are fast learning that social is not just about marketing, but community, endorsement and customer service also. It’s about getting the balance right. And, there are some really great examples out there.
Interaction
The biggest mistake any brand can make is to not interact with their customers. Your customers expect you to respond and talk back and even better they want to get involved and feel part of your brand.
Encourage them to chat, this is your customers and they want to talk. The feedback on your business is invaluable and gives you insight into what is and what isn’t working.
There a plenty of great examples out there of brands doing just this. Two that are worth taking a look at are Liberty and Easyjet.
Add Email Sign Up
Don’t be afraid to cross channel market. You add social links to your email
campaigns, so why not go vice versa? Add an email sign up box to your profile and use it to grow your database.
Marks & Spencers actually have a box on the profile displaying their latest newsletter for people to view.
Facebook on your site
2010 was about incorporating Facebook functionality onto your own website. The ‘like’ button being the most popular tool.
The Levi store was one of the early adopters of this functionality. But some other nice examples are ASOS and BT Fresca client Dig Deep
I also love the Orange Glastonbury microsite, where you can tag your friends in the crowd pictures from Glastonbury.
Turn a negative into a positive
The delivery issues caused by snow at Christmas were certainly a test for some
retailer’s customer service abilities. Negative comments on your facebook don’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, it’s about how you manage them. But, the
worst thing you can possibly do is ignore comments.
Sometimes your fans will even do the work for you. I referred to Easyjet earlier, when they were experiencing flight issues with the snow, customers were pointing other customers to where on the Easyjet website.
Negative comments on your Facebook page give you a chance to turn around that customer’s perception of you, so embrace it.
Make the space yours
Ok, we’ve moved on from My Space, but your brand page is a representation of who you are and what you stand for.
What is your key message, how can you engage differently but still on brand via Facebook? With a little bit of creative help, it’s very simple to personalise the page.
Take a look at the Starbucks, Tiffany and Skittles pages for some inspiration.
Reward your fans
Customers that ‘like’ your brand should be treated like any loyalty database you own and manage. Give them something back in return for this loyalty.
At Christmas, John Lewis did a video for customers on how to set the perfect Christmas table. Pringle have a video from illustrator David Shirgley and to celebrate reaching 500,000 likes Next gave away 25 gift cards to customers.
Happy customers will spread the word and do your work for you.
Encouraging Sign Ups
On a penultimate note, I just wanted to share this fun page on Zappos encouraging likes.
2011?
And what does 2011 hold? I look forward to seeing more from Facebook places and shopping on Facebook…
Laura Summers heads up the BT Fresca Online Marketing team and manages online services for some of retail’s biggest and most successful UK websites. If you’re interested in discussing Facebook marketing, drop Laura a line via btexpedite@bt.com or call 0870 8506880.
18 Oct
The Importance of Multi-Variant Testing
Every ecommerce manager dreams of the perfect website. One that’s effortlessly easy to use, with a phenomenal conversion rate and a huge email database. But the reality is there is always something you could tweak just a little bit, or that looks perfectly logical when it went through testing but is not working as well as you’d desired now that it’s live. Then there are the pages that have you scratching your head in bewilderment when you look at the stats.
This is where multivariate testing comes into its own. On paper, it’s a no brainer. So why do so few retailers do it?
I think one of the main reasons is time and lack of internal resource. But I also talk to so many retailers who simply do not know where to start. My advice to anyone would be that it does not have to be a huge revolution. In fact, quick wins can easily be had with small and subtle changes. The positioning, size and colour of an important button has more of an impact that you can have guessed.
Ten Handy Hints
If you’re thinking of setting up a multi-variate test programme for your website, here are ten handy hints to help:
1. Identify what you are trying to achieve. Is it an increase in conversion rate or a reduction in bounces? The definition is important…
2. Start small. Take one key page with significant visits and look at your calls to action. How can they be improved?
3. Don’t run too many variants at a time. You’ll just end up diluting your results
4. Remember conversion can go down as well as up. It may not be the result you were looking for, but it still adds insight to your website’s performance and future design.
5. Devise a strategy following test results. What are your next steps? It’s great to test, but don’t forget to use your learnings. Do you need to do a follow up test? Do you need to repeat the test on a different page?
6. Be pre-emptive as well as reactive. Upgrading your site? Why not try out those changes in a measured and analytical way before they go live?
7. Devise a testing plan. You have an email and online marketing calendar, so why not have a testing one. Even if it’s small, strategy is key.
8. Engage the business. We all know everyone has an opinion, put the internal debate to rest with proven results.
9. It doesn’t have to be expensive. With Google’s Optimizer tool, multi-variate testing is open to small and large business. There’s no excuse!
10.And finally, make the time. A testing strategy and campaign will pay for itself. If you can’t manage it in-house, consider outsourcing options.
Good luck!
About the Author: Posted by Justine on behalf of Laura Summers who heads up the BT Fresca Online Marketing team and manages online services for some of retail’s biggest and most successful UK websites. If you’re interested in outsourcing your multi-variate testing, drop Laura a line via btexpedite@bt.com or call 0870 8506880.
