Rating: Rakuten’s Play.com says don’t write off bricks & mortar
The Global Online Shopper report commissioned by WorldPay has found that -globally – 30 per cent of online shoppers either use a smartphone (19 per cent) or a tablet (11 per cent). The report also found that one in six Britons do their shopping on a smartphone. In the UK, of those consumers who buy using a mobile device – 14 per cent use a smartphone whilst 6 per cent do so via a tablet. However, when it comes to heavy spenders (those who have spent 30 per cent of their disposable income online over the past year), 55 per cent of heavy spenders have used a smartphone (worldwide). Adam Stewart, marketing director with Rakuten’s Play.com says that merchants shouldn’t panic and abandon bricks and mortar entirely. They should take a multi-channel approach instead.“Online shoppers are becoming increasingly mobile, no longer chained to their PC to buy goods and services,” observed Philip McGriskin, chief product officer with WorldPay.
“The way shoppers engage with mobile devices is evolving and driving the future of e-commerce as consumers look to purchase through apps, mobile websites and using their device on the move,” he added.
“This increased mobility is expanding the audience of potential consumers for merchants to target but, in tandem, presents challenges in offering the best experience for these consumers whenever and wherever they demand it,” McGriskin argued.
However, Adam Stewart reckons that, “Many will herald this milestone as yet another nail in the coffin for traditional bricks and mortar shopping, but this would be to take a far too simplified view of the situation.”
“From a retail standpoint, the multichannel customer is much more valuable than the bricks and mortar customer, but the bricks and mortar experience is something many consumers still cherish,” Stewart argues.
The art is to treat online commerce as a powerful channel that is complementary to traditional retail and that can be a powerful mechanism for driving shoppers towards physical retail outlets.
“The boundaries between online and offline worlds are becoming increasingly blurred,” Stewart says.
The Global Online Shopper report has some pretty heavy-duty facts and figures for retails and the full report can, in fact, be downloaded from WorldPay here.
More of the executive summary can be found courtesy of Bloomberg Business Week here.
