Amazon UK [IRDX RAMZ], Argos [IRDX RARG], House of Fraser [IRDX RHOF], John Lewis [IRDX RJLW] and Marks & Spencer [IRDX RMAS] are the UK’s leading multichannel and ecommerce retailers, according to the Internet Retailing Top 500 (IRUK 500), available online for the first time today.
Today’s publication of the IRUK 500 brings to a culmination the first phase of research intended to cut past preconceptions to establish which retailers are at the forefront of digital retailing, how they are achieving that preeminence and how others can learn from best practice. The research aims to provide the most complete and freely available study of UK ecommerce and multichannel retail performance, based on figures that are in the public domain.
Ian Jindal, editor-in-chief of Internet Retailing, said: “We offer our results in the full knowledge that we are not the professionals running multichannel businesses – millions in turnover, of customers, of SKUs, key words, merchandising algorithms and interactions across all channels.
It is in tribute to these efforts that we have assessed across six Performance Dimensions rather than taking a single measure (be it revenues or web traffic).
“Our report is dedicated to those professionals who make the UK’s retail market the most competitive and capable in the world.”
The IRUK 500 research process started when the Internet Retailing research team measured the footprint of the leading 500 UK retailers, as established through total UK retail turnover, combined with ecommerce turnover, store numbers and web traffic rank.
Researchers, both in-house at Internet Retailing and from knowledge partners EDITD, Google, GTmetrix, Lithium, Micros, Oracle and poq studio [IRDX VPOQ], then measured the performance of the top 500 companies against six performance dimensions: strategy and innovation, the customer, operations and logistics, merchandising, brand and engagement, and mobile and cross-channel.
Elite retailers, who led in the six performance dimensions included Amazon UK, in a class of its own for strategy and innovation, Schuh and Burberry, which led the way in the customer dimension. Schuh was also a leader in the operations and logistics dimension, where it was joined in the elite group by Amazon UK, Boots, House of Fraser, John Lewis, and Superdry. In merchandising, John Lewis, Asos, eBuyer, and Topps Tiles came out on top, while M&S led in the brand and engagement dimension, along with Asos, Debenhams and Topshop. The final dimension, mobile and cross-channel, was led by Argos, Evans (Clothing) and JD Sports.
Measured across all categories, including the footprint, the overall Elite retailers were Amazon UK, Argos, House of Fraser, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer.
Andy Harding of House of FraserInternet Retailing’s advisory board in this projects includes: Andy Harding of House of Fraser, Emma Robertson of Transform, Jonathan Reynolds, of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management, Jonathan Wall of Shop Direct, Neil Ashworth of Collect+, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Nick Lansley of Tesco, Peter Fitzgerald of Google, Robin Phillips of Boots, Simon Forster of Selfridges, Siobhán Géhin of Kurt Salmon, Stephen Heal of Frontier Economics, Tony Preedy of Lakeland and Walter Blackwood of Mothercare.
The study will be followed in the spring by the IREU Top500 Footprint – the leading European retailers, to be followed by a European Top500. In summer 2015, there’ll also be an analysis of the top suppliers to the IRUK 500.
Jindal said: “Congratulations go to all those listed in our Top500. Together you make British multichannel retail globally renowned and admired. While attention focuses on the largest, we will continue to review and celebrate those excellent, exciting and inspiring businesses whose performance often shows the larger companies what can be done.”
Alongside the first online publication of the IRUK 500, comes the publication of the Brand and Engagement performance dimension report, the first in a new series of in-depth reports into the evolution of the industry and emerging best practice that start with the IRUK 500 research.
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Ian Jindal, editor-in-chief of Internet Retailing, said: “We offer our results in the full knowledge that we are not the professionals running multichannel businesses – millions in turnover, of customers, of SKUs, key words, merchandising algorithms and interactions across all channels.
