Ok, I’m naive. I also fell into the trap of thinking (a year ago) that an e-commerce could, today, be an EXCLUSIVE and UNIQUE choice, sufficiently large and attractive to sell something, to the detriment of traditional retail. It’s not entirely wrong, in theory, as this 2014 data shows, for example: + 17% of growth in online shopping in Italy. Market worth 13.6 billion euros. Annual growth in other countries is constant, but we are growing more strongly, perhaps because the gap to make up is still large, but that’s how it is: in 2014, +11% in France, +8% in Germany, +12% in the UK; +10% in the USA.
Source: Netcomm Consortium
If Social Media also come into play to bring online sales , the picture is complete and “tasty”, considering how hot the topic will be for the near future. Yet the digital, retail, mobile worlds – never so close and connected as they are today – mix together with dynamics that are not always so linear and innovative. The tools evolve at a speed that most users, customers (at least Italians), perhaps do not have. Once again, I allow myself to reach a conclusion of this type starting from some data that I report below (source Google – The Mobile PlayBook , a very interesting and long free resource, which I recommend you read with due attention).
What happens when a user searches for local information from a smartphone? 94% of smartphone users search for local information; 51% of users visited a physical store; 48% of users called a physical store; 29% made a purchase in-store, quickly and immediately; 80% of mobile searches resulted in visits to the physical store within 5 hours of the initial search; 85% of mobile searches resulted in calls to the store within 5 hours of the initial search.
Outside of local searches, however
3 out of 10 people take relevant actions such as visiting a store, purchasing something online or calling companies/stores. How do customers behave? The behavior of 94 out of 100 users is clear: “I look for local information on the move, because I have an immediate need” . Once the information is found, a third of these users end up making a kuwait email list purchase in the physical store. Local searches as a source of conversions.
An illuminating example in my opinion is given by the world of books. A friend who wrote a book told me some interesting, unexpected, % estimates : out of 100 books sold in a week, only 3 were e-books (virtual therefore), all the others were physical paper books (and more expensive). What I get is: people still want to touch the goods, even if it means visiting a physical store. The web allows you to save something in terms of price, to save a lot in terms of time spent and research for information.
What role for physical retail
Physical retail can and must still make its voice heard, riding the digital and its ever-new technologies: these new relationships and numbers allow us to talk about “showrooming” for physical stores that, in addition to being places of sale, become an important place to convince the user to become a customer (probably “online” in a later phase) and to give more and more value to service levels . In support of this, there is a search that Italian users are increasingly doing on Google: From January 2013 to October 2014 there was a huge +64% of searches on Google for the query “discount code” Discount codes and coupons, yes, but valid both online and offline.
If online channels and traditional retail are battling it out
There is room for “cherry picker” customers, that is, those who hunt almost exclusively for the lowest price, unfaithful to brands and distribution chains. If online and offline , however, are thought to be two sides of the same coin , or rather, of the same multi-channel marketing strategy , then the advantages for the brand hunting for the main theme is that many customers are notable. The Walgreens Case Walgreens , a US pharmaceutical chain that follows precisely this last path, can count on 50% of visits to its web stores from users who are in the store and browsing from mobile devices.
Our goal is to create technology that makes
It easier for mobile customers to interact with our stores. – Abhi Dhar, CTO of e-commerce at Walgreens – The goal of this strategy is to improve betting data the in-store user experience , while still rewarding those who purchase in a physical store (with coupons valid for both online and offline): this way the two channels do not cannibalize each other but, on the contrary, are complementary. For anyone with a traditional store, be careful not to remain “stuck at the post”, without considering the importance of chasing customers on whatever channel they decide to find information and purchase products.
