At a time when sales typically increase, the latest news is that retail sales figures for January are in fact, the second worst since 1995. There’s nothing like a touch of reality to make retailers come down with a bump as 2012 gets into full swing, but that is the face of modern retailing unfortunately. Read more »
Did you know that your products might not be displaying properly on shopping and price comparison websites? Chances are, probably you didn’t know but this is because there are some new requirements in place that are now causing a storm for retailers.
Cyber Monday might only come around once a year, but I wonder how many actually took steps to ensure that the benefits of the day are felt by the business all year around?
As technology and mobile become more common place in the offline retail experience, I believe that many could be missing a trick by failing to encourage those shopping online to visit the bricks and mortar stores too. Read more »
You only have to scan the news of late to see reports that consumers are increasingly becoming more comfortable making higher value purchases via their mobile phone. I believe this trend means there are going to be some rapid developments in the mobile marketplace in 2012, which could see mobile providers potentially offering ‘virtual banks services where consumer purchases via mobile are simply added to their phone bill.
I was interested to read a story today on Retail Week regarding a strong third quarter performance from Next’s Directory business and particularly, how it has compensated for weak store sales.
Last week was Stress Free Shopping Week and this got me thinking about the shopping and buying process for the consumer.
At the present time, many retailers are focusing on offering customers the opportunity to buy across multiple channels, such as instore, online, via mobile apps, perhaps even on Facebook and Twitter, but is there a problem with this? Is there too much choice for the consumer?
Possibly. Read more »
Last month , CTS Retail sponsored the Retail Conference 2011, a fantastic day of workshops and business briefings that explored the state of the retail sector, shared insights into the market and brought together like minded individuals from both retail and services sectors. This is one of my most favourite events of the year and I had the privilege of leading a conference workshop looking into the truth behind optimised retailing.
The ability to meet the demands of today’s customer has never been more critical to business survival. Customers now want to shop in many ways and expect to get the same ‘store experience’ across all channels. Technology is radically changing the face of the retail customer experience and the pace of change is getting quicker by the day. Retailers need to embrace it now more than ever if they want to survive. Read more »
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