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According to Verdict Consulting, you’ve got to make sure your infrastructure is robust enough to cope with peaks in demand – imperative as we approach the busy festive period. At the same time, your systems need to be flexible to quickly evolve with the ever-changing nature of online retailing. Those sites without the appropriate infrastructure in place will inevitably struggle.
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Times are hard – not least of all for retailers. Consumers are demanding more, but spending less. And retailers are struggling to grow their sales lines against a backdrop of rapidly inflating costs.
How can you increase revenue during the current downturn? Some retailers have considered opening more stores to ensure they are well placed to reach their market. But in a world where, certainly in some sectors, consumers simply have less money to spend, there are no guarantees that adding more selling space will generate additional revenue.
The rise of the internet
But, there is a glimmer of hope: Verdict Consulting, the UK’s leading independent authority on retailing, reports the phenomenal growth of the internet. From virtually a standing start in 1997, the online channel has grown into a multibillion pound business. In 2008 alone, consumers will spend £19.4 billion on retail goods bought on the internet, accounting for 8.6 percent of total retail expenditure – a figure that Verdict Consulting forecasts will increase to 13.6 percent by 2012. That’s a sales value of just over £44 billion.
The bottom line is this: if you don’t have an internet presence, you’ll find it much harder to achieve growth over the next five years. But as the internet channel has grown in importance, it has become increasingly complex. Today, simply opening an internet store doesn’t guarantee online success. But get it right, and you’re more likely to emerge in a stronger position from the economic downturn.
Robustness and change
So how do you get it right? According to Verdict Consulting, you’ve got to make sure your infrastructure is robust enough to cope with peaks in demand – imperative as we approach the busy festive period. At the same time, your systems need to be flexible to quickly evolve with the ever-changing nature of online retailing.
In Q4 of 2008, Verdict Consulting predicts that internet shoppers will spend £7billion – that’s almost 40 percent up from the same time last year – and your website must be able to handle this demand. Consumers want a smooth, hassle-free online experience; if your website fails to perform when hit by peak trading – it runs slowly or worse, crashes completely – your customers will take their business elsewhere. Verdict Consulting forecasts a total of £139million in lost sales from the online channel in Q4 due to underperformance and site malfunction.
Without remedy, the problem will continue to worsen. As the internet grows as a channel, retail websites will need to cope with ever-increasing transaction volumes. Those sites without the appropriate infrastructure in place now will inevitably struggle in the future.
But robustness must not forsake flexibility. Right now, we’re in the middle of an online retail revolution: the online marketplace has evolved considerably since the first transactional websites of the early 1990s. Retailers are harnessing technological developments to enhance their online operations, whether by adding functionality or increasing customer personalisation.
And the pace of change has accelerated: faster technological developments have resulted in increased competition online. Customers expect much more from their online experience and all retailers are under pressure to find new ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors – or get left behind. In October 2008, eBay reported its first-ever quarterly sales decline. It was claimed that the company’s ‘inferior technology platform’ was making it difficult for the company to compete with other e-commerce platforms.
To take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the online retail channel, you must ensure your systems have the flexibility to evolve with the market – or, better still, outpace it.
Invest in future success
Internet retail is just the beginning; the number of retail channels will continue to increase over the coming years. We’ve already seen the growth of television shopping channels in recent years. And the next generation of e-commerce is already upon us; mobile commerce, or ‘m-commerce’, exploits the ability for consumers to access the web via their mobile devices, enabling them to make purchases on the go.
To maximise future growth opportunities, you need to offer consumers a credible multi-channel approach; that is, one that combines both your physical and your virtual stores. hybris software is a leading vendor of multi-channel commerce and communication software to help businesses communicate and sell across all channels in a consistent and effective way. As the number of channels increases, their flexible and easily expandable software represents a real investment in the future success of your company to meet these new challenges.
To find out more, please visit www.hybris.com.
How can you increase revenue during the current downturn? Some retailers have considered opening more stores to ensure they are well placed to reach their market. But in a world where, certainly in some sectors, consumers simply have less money to spend, there are no guarantees that adding more selling space will generate additional revenue.
The rise of the internet
But, there is a glimmer of hope: Verdict Consulting, the UK’s leading independent authority on retailing, reports the phenomenal growth of the internet. From virtually a standing start in 1997, the online channel has grown into a multibillion pound business. In 2008 alone, consumers will spend £19.4 billion on retail goods bought on the internet, accounting for 8.6 percent of total retail expenditure – a figure that Verdict Consulting forecasts will increase to 13.6 percent by 2012. That’s a sales value of just over £44 billion.
The bottom line is this: if you don’t have an internet presence, you’ll find it much harder to achieve growth over the next five years. But as the internet channel has grown in importance, it has become increasingly complex. Today, simply opening an internet store doesn’t guarantee online success. But get it right, and you’re more likely to emerge in a stronger position from the economic downturn.
Robustness and change
So how do you get it right? According to Verdict Consulting, you’ve got to make sure your infrastructure is robust enough to cope with peaks in demand – imperative as we approach the busy festive period. At the same time, your systems need to be flexible to quickly evolve with the ever-changing nature of online retailing.
In Q4 of 2008, Verdict Consulting predicts that internet shoppers will spend £7billion – that’s almost 40 percent up from the same time last year – and your website must be able to handle this demand. Consumers want a smooth, hassle-free online experience; if your website fails to perform when hit by peak trading – it runs slowly or worse, crashes completely – your customers will take their business elsewhere. Verdict Consulting forecasts a total of £139million in lost sales from the online channel in Q4 due to underperformance and site malfunction.
Without remedy, the problem will continue to worsen. As the internet grows as a channel, retail websites will need to cope with ever-increasing transaction volumes. Those sites without the appropriate infrastructure in place now will inevitably struggle in the future.
But robustness must not forsake flexibility. Right now, we’re in the middle of an online retail revolution: the online marketplace has evolved considerably since the first transactional websites of the early 1990s. Retailers are harnessing technological developments to enhance their online operations, whether by adding functionality or increasing customer personalisation.
And the pace of change has accelerated: faster technological developments have resulted in increased competition online. Customers expect much more from their online experience and all retailers are under pressure to find new ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors – or get left behind. In October 2008, eBay reported its first-ever quarterly sales decline. It was claimed that the company’s ‘inferior technology platform’ was making it difficult for the company to compete with other e-commerce platforms.
To take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the online retail channel, you must ensure your systems have the flexibility to evolve with the market – or, better still, outpace it.
Invest in future success
Internet retail is just the beginning; the number of retail channels will continue to increase over the coming years. We’ve already seen the growth of television shopping channels in recent years. And the next generation of e-commerce is already upon us; mobile commerce, or ‘m-commerce’, exploits the ability for consumers to access the web via their mobile devices, enabling them to make purchases on the go.
To maximise future growth opportunities, you need to offer consumers a credible multi-channel approach; that is, one that combines both your physical and your virtual stores. hybris software is a leading vendor of multi-channel commerce and communication software to help businesses communicate and sell across all channels in a consistent and effective way. As the number of channels increases, their flexible and easily expandable software represents a real investment in the future success of your company to meet these new challenges.
To find out more, please visit www.hybris.com.
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