A recent report from analyst Gartner highlights how new channels such as social and mobile are driving in-store revenue, but physical stores will remain the dominant revenue-generating channel. The report also reveals that the UK will continue to lead the US for multichannel execution, accounting for a higher proportion of digital to store revenue.
The survey, carried out in the last quarter of of 2012, looked to validate Gartner’s expectations around the continuing impact of digital channels on offline. Conducted across 10 countries, the findings reveal that almost two-thirds of consumers preferred to purchase in store, with almost three quarters of respondents (70%) preferring to get products from the shelf at time of purchase, or to pick them up from the store after ordering online. This illustrates that the physical store is still very much the ‘hub’ of any cross-channel execution.
The report further reveals that mobile and social commerce will be more important for driving greater bricks-and-mortar sales than yielding sales directly. Gartner’s consumer research points to consumers’ continued preference to use a mobile device for research and information, rather than for transactional purposes. Finding a store location, browsing a retailer’s site, and comparing competitive prices were the top three reasons given by consumers in the multichannel survey.
However, Gartner forecasts that the proportion of sales from e-commerce and mobile channels in the UK will continue to be greater than the US, and as a result the UK will lead the way for multichannel execution. By 2017, the analyst forecasts that e-commerce will account for over 20% of all retail sales in the UK, compared with 12% in the US, whilst mobile commerce will increase to 10% in the UK, double that of the 5% forecast for the US.
With UK multichannel setting the pace for retailers around the world and continuing to grow, it’s more important than ever for retailers to have a strong pricing strategy across all of their channels. Consumers expect the same pricing regardless of channel preference – be it in-store, online or via mobile – and they want the lowest prices. Retailers need to be smart and understand what their competitors are doing, to meet – and beat – the competition.
To find out how Profitero can make your pricing smarter to stay ahead of the competition, grow sales and increase profit margins, contact us today at sales@profitero.com.
About Profitero
Pricing intelligence company Profitero provides retailers with actionable price intelligence data, monitoring over 50 million products across 4,000 eCommerce retailers every day, observing pricing, promotions and stock availability. We work with the world’s leading retailers, enabling them to acquire new customers and grow profit margins by monitoring and responding to changes in competitor pricing and promotional activity as they happen. For more information on Profitero price intelligence and competitor monitoring, visit www.profitero.com or email sales@profitero.com
 |
| Profitero.com: web based competitor price monitoring for retailers and brands |