Asda, Facebook, eBay, Tesco and Amazon will gather at Internet Retailing 2011 event to share best practice in rapidly evolving retail channel
Asda, Facebook, eBay, Tesco and Amazon will gather at Internet Retailing 2011 event to share best practice in rapidly evolving retail channel
Online retailing, like all areas of retailing, does not stand still. The pace of change is speeding up as consumer behaviour, industry innovations and multichannel retailing necessitate continuous improvements to systems, operations and processes.
E-commerce and multichannel directors have to keep pace with these changes while minding the longer-term needs of the business and handling the day-to-day tweaks required of retail trading. This ‘Marathon of Sprints’ is the theme for the Internet Retailing 2011 (IR2011) conference being held in London on 4 October.
Connecting online with instore
Mark Hodgkinson, until recently the digital and financial services director of Asda and keynote presenter at IR2011, fully understands the complexities of multichannel retailing and the pressures the long and short-term needs put on the multichannel director’s role. With responsibility for Asda.com, Asda Direct and Asda Financial Services, he developed the strategy and roadmap for Asda’s multichannel and financial services five-year growth plans. This included the successful roll out of instore collection across the full estate of 300+ stores.
Gavin Sathianathan, head of commerce partnerships at Facebook and Miriam Lahage, global head of fashion brand at eBay will also keynote.
Key to the multichannel retailing evolution is the changing behaviour of customers. They want to shop in whichever way suits them at any given time and expect the same experience at every touch point. Not only do they expect brands to fulfil what they promise, they want their expectations to be exceeded.
Personalisation of services online, in emails, social networking and via mobile phones, through to Shutl’s 90-minute delivery, as used by Aurora Fashions, all help to bring the retailer/customer relationship ever closer across the channels.
But, what might look like a seamless operation from the customer side could be a ‘hodge podge’ of systems or a shining example of best practice operations. One of the latest retailers to undergo a platform change to push forward its multichannel ambitions is Lakeland. Its marketing director, Tony Preedy will share his insights at the conference into how a brand-led mode of thinking is changing the role of e-commerce directors and how they manage and pull together the five strands for multichannel success.
Applying expertise across channels
One of those key factors for multichannel success is the buy-in from the whole organisation, from board level to delivery drivers and store colleagues, and utilising their expertise across channels. Majestic Wine Warehouses, for example, has delegated online content creation and customer contact through social media to the 800 retail staff at its 170-plus stores.
The ‘medal winner’ of multichannel retailing in the UK though is Tesco and Jon Higgins, Tesco.com’s IT director, will talk about balancing innovation and evolution with day-to-day trading needs.
The roll-out of multichannel business change projects are not new and, while e-commerce directors’ diaries have been full of projects to enable the seamless cross-channel experience, they have been strategising and implementing their mobile commerce strategies and, more recently, setting their sights on cross-border and international trading. What Amazon doesn’t know about trading across different regions is not worth knowing. Chris Poad will be sharing insights into entering new markets – and what to avoid.
Internet Retailing 2011 takes place on 4 October at Novotel Hammersmith in London. Registration is now open.
