Retailers Increasingly Using Multi-Platform Approach to Selling, Says Report
Traditional and online retailing are increasingly intertwined as customers “shop across touchpoints” and the industry uses both platforms to reach them, said a Wednesday study from the National Retail Federation and Forrester. Products ordered online are increasingly picked up in-store…
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or shipped from a nearby store, and digital technology used at brick-and-mortar locations lets retailers help customers find what they want or make the sale "even if the product is out of stock,” said Mark Mathews, NRF vice president-research development. Of companies surveyed this year, 32 percent were purely online retailers and 57 percent were multichannel operations, including brick-and-mortar retailers also selling online. Some 43 percent of physical store retailers expect a net increase in the number of outlets they operate by year-end vs. last year, while 16 percent expected a reduction, it said. Retailers also are testing new store formats such as pop-up stores (24 percent) and opening new warehouses or distribution centers (12 percent). Some 12 percent of retailers said they are using technology to enable store staff to help customers. Seventy percent of retailers surveyed said online conversion rates increased in the past year, while 62 percent said repeat customers were up and 57 percent said average order values had increased. Sales from desktop PCs are double those from mobile browsers, but the latter are growing 36 percent per year vs. 8 percent for desktop sales. Mobile app sales are growing 16 percent year on year, and 89 percent of retailers plan to boost investments in mobile initiatives.