You may have seen the news earlier this week that Amazon are pushing further into the world of bricks-and-mortar shopping, with plans for 100 pop-up stores in US shopping malls that will focus on showcasing its technology offerings, with emphasis being placed on Amazon’s new product Echo.
RetailMeNot, operator of VoucherCodes.co.uk, recently published some interesting findings from retailers that supports the recent news to come from Amazon, including:
- 73% of retailers in the UK are planning to increase digital investment in the next 24 months in an attempt to branch out from the traditional bricks-and-mortar customer experience to drive in-store sales
- 59% of UK multichannel retailers see customer loyalty as the key motivator for this investment
- Three-fifths of retailers admit that they’re still challenged by connecting the digital and physical shopping experience
- 98% use mobile technology to drive in-store sales and 9 in 10 are offering real-time promotions
- However, many retailers are still struggling to provide a seamless shopping experience: 38% of multi-channel retailers in the UK do not yet consistently align prices across all channels and just two-fifths have an integrated retail team
- Priorities for digital investments over the next 12 months will focus on mobile payment (80%) and partnerships with third party apps to promote their offers (76%) in order to improve the in-store performance.
Severine Philardeau, VP of Retail and Brand Solutions at VoucherCodes.co.uk, RetailMeNot: “We are still at the very beginning of a massive transformation of the retail landscape. The way consumers shop has changed, and as a result their expectations are no longer the same.
Mobile has now become an integral part of the shopping experience, both online and in-store, and what’s more important, it can bridge the online experience with the high-street and bring people back into the physical stores. It is therefore not surprising that almost three quarters of leading multichannel retailers in the UK are planning to increase their investment into digital technology to drive in-store sales.
“The high street experience has not lost its value and is still very important to consumers, with 90% of European sales still happening in the bricks-and-mortar. Whilst online sales are still growing, and this is now mainly driven by mobile, we also see a general integration of technology into the shopping experience. Retailers are now looking to move towards one unified omnichannel experience, finding new and innovative ways to increase footfall and drive instore sales”.