Intershop recently released its 2012 E-commerce Report, which investigates the changing nature of commerce in Europe. Below is a summary of our major findings.
By Andreas Kopatz, product marketing manager, Intershop
We wanted to see how retailers were adapting to deliver consistent experiences across their online and offline stores, how they were using analytics to bring more intelligence to the shopping experience, and what their ambitions were for the years ahead.
After speaking with over 300 senior decision makers across Europe, these are the main findings.
Despite the economic conditions, more than half of European retailers are confident they will see growth in their online operations this year. 43% of those with an existing online presence expect to see this presence grow, while 11% expect to sell more online than through their physical stores.
In Benelux, the UK and Italy, more than half of retailers say that online is a key growth market for them.
The majority of European retailers recognise the critical role that their website plays, and how it can influence purchasing habits. 74% recognise that a website can influence what their customers buy, 73% influencing whether they return and 72% how much they buy.
Delivering a consistent customer experience across online and offline channels remains a significant challenge. Half of the retailers surveyed agreed that consistently marketing across all channels will boost sales conversions and basket values, yet 48% said that executing a genuinely identical customer experience across all channels is beyond them.
Operating an effective mobile strategy remains the elusive prize, with almost two thirds (65%) saying that those who can conquer mobile commerce will prevail. The next most significant challenge was intelligently managing their product portfolio as their inventory grows (55%), reflecting retailers’ growing diversification to counter the economic slowdown.
While conquering mobile and multi-channel may be the greatest business challenge, integrating flexible A/B testing was singled out as the greatest technical challenge.
Some 58% of retailers are currently unable to implement A/B testing into their websites, yet 48% say that it is important to them. A/B testing adds a significant level of intelligence to any e-marketing strategy.
By providing an evidence-based means of tweaking and revising marketing strategies until they are as effective as they can be, it is the magic bullet that every online retailer should have.
Our research also showed that retailers were becoming more data-savvy. Those retailers who expect to sell more online than through physical stores were most likely to recognise the importance of being able to monitor websites and respond in real-time (97%).
By contrast those who were relatively new to online retailing were least likely to be aware of the benefits that monitoring websites can bring (61%).
When asked about the importance of different features of a website, easy product management was considered the most important (71%), followed by powerful merchandising and intuitive page management (both 67%).
In conclusion our research shows that online and offline commerce is continuing to innovate in Europe, however it is not without its hurdles.
With almost all retailers operating both online and offline environments, delivering a consistent customer experience remains a significant challenge for them. Mobile too is a major opportunity to those who can master it. This trend reflects what we have seen in the market when speaking with our customers.
Retailers are looking for ways to deliver a consistent retail experience across multiple channels, be it online, offline, mobile and even through their call centres. Taking control of multiple channels is clearly the defining challenge for retailers today.
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