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Convenient e-commerce at Christmas! But one out of three orders in the UK didn’t arrive according to JDA

By
fabrizio.gomarasca
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The number of people turning to e-commerce is increasing, especially in very busy periods such as the festive season, but so too are the difficulties of retailers in meeting the demands of online customers without problems. This is what emerges from a survey carried for JDA, a company that provides retail solutions in a market much more mature than ours, such as that of the UK, where almost half (47%) of consumers made at least 50% of their Christmas shopping on line. During the 2014 Christmas period in fact, the survey shows, 31% of Britons who chose e-commerce had problems with their order: 49% had no delivery, while 45% never received the parcel or received it late. It went better in 2013, when only one customer out of five reported problems.

The rise of click and collect

39% of consumers, more careful, opted for in-store collection, citing two reasons: the absence of shipping costs (61%) and greater convenience (53%). A generally satisfactory experience, so much so that 34% said they would use it again next Christmas. And a quarter said they had given preference precisely to retailers offering this service, compared to those who did not provide the possibility of collecting the order in the store. Also in this case, however, there were complaints regarding the long wait in the store due to staff shortages, lack of a dedicated collection area and the excessive time taken by store staff to retrieve the products ordered on line.

The e-shopper is impatient…

“The growth of e-commerce in the UK shows no sign of slowing down. In parallel, customer expectations concerning the service have never been so high, so much so that the customer is ready to buy elsewhere (another website or physical store) when his demands are not met. And this puts great pressure on retailers, especially during the Christmas season when demand soars” concludes Jason Shorrock, retail strategy director of JDA.

The smartphone is not enough: at Tesco stores you shop with Google Glass

By
Anna Muzio
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Google Glass: not everyone can afford it, it costs more than 1000 euros and is currently a whim (with a tendency for breach of privacy), but that “wearables”, wearable and connected devices, will spread exponentially in the coming years is a fact. And so Tesco, the main British brand, is doing an operation of image rather than substance, certainly, but which promises to be talked about. Shopping online with Google Glass: even more technology, which uses the Google voice device (“OK Glass, start shopping”) and the scanning of barcodes to put together shopping lists, obtain nutritional information and ship the order, which will later be delivered to the home. The software was developed by the team of engineers and computer experts at Tesco Labs. The video shows how the App works.

Home delivery issues for one in five, click and collect preferred

By
fabrizio.gomarasca
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The german company allyouneed.com is coming to expand his operations in Europe

It’s easy to say e-commerce: as convenient and economical as it may be, this way of shopping has an Achilles heel: home delivery. Causing problems to one in five Europeans last year, according to a survey by JDA. Delivery delays or no delivery at all are the most frequent complaints, with variations depending on the country in question. Almost half of Swedish customers (47%), for example, reported delivery delays. The UK, on the other hand, has the unenviable record of no delivery at all, as declared by more than a quarter (28%) of respondents.

Perhaps this is why click and collect and click and drive are becoming so popular, i.e. online order with collection in the store or directly loaded in the car. Almost one in two British people have already tried it (48%) in the last 12 months. But this approach is also growing in France (31%), Sweden (28%) and Germany (19%). Cost and convenience are the reasons for choosing the alternative to “pure” e-commerce. What is certain is that shopping online (including home delivery and/or “Click and Collect”) will continue to gain popularity. over two thirds (67%) of European consumers said that within five years the majority of their purchases will be online.

Willing to pay as long as it arrives immediately

That delivery is a crucial issue of all online sales is demonstrated by the fact that over one third (37%) of respondents are willing to pay a premium to get same-day delivery. And it is precisely for food items that fast delivery is of most interest and for which it is worth spending a little more: it is requested by 63% of Germans, 48% of Swedes and 40% of British people, while the French are more willing to pay a premium for fast delivery of electrical and entertainment equipment (33%).

Returns remain the main source of dissatisfaction for over half (53%) of consumers, disgruntled by having to pay postage and packing for return items. Other frustrations concern the inconvenience of returning items by mail or having to wait for a courier (35%) and the impossibility to return items collected at the store (21%), which also in this case is a fundamental issue for any multichannel strategy.

And Italy? For now it is looking on and experimenting…

The results are based on the combined data of the JDA Customer Pulse Reports 2014, involving 8,177 consumers between 16 and 54 years of age in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Sweden. Excluding Italy, therefore, which in fact is still a long way behind, especially in certain areas, such as large-scale distribution as far as e-commerce is concerned.

“Based on our experience, Italian retailers are very interested in the omni-channel approach which, compared to the UK, is certainly still in the early stages. Operating in omni-channel mode makes it even more important to focus on the delicate balance between service and margins. As highlighted by our research in a number of European countries, also in Italy we expect that the hybrid models of online shopping and order collection in a physical place – store, dark store, drive – will become increasingly popular. This scenario requires retailers to rethink supply chain processes in a strategic manner in order to drive innovation in customer services, managing to balance operational excellence with profitability” says Stefano Scandelli, JDA Vice President Sales South Europe.

 

 

 

Infographics: on line and off line the consumer wants to save time

By
fabrizio.gomarasca
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Which is the most valuable asset? Probably time. There is much talk of the shopping experience but actually, with the approach of the festive season and streets, shopping centres and retail stores increasingly crowded, going shopping is stressful and no one wants to waste time. This is why the strategies implemented by retailers and large-scale distribution are increasingly requested and appreciated, from self-check out to self-scanning. And then there is the big issue of payment by smartphone which can also save a few seconds. All expedients that in particularly hectic periods can make all the difference when choosing where to shop.

Less obvious is to think that also e-commerce is subject to the same rules, as demonstrated by the infographics below, the result of a Dynatrace survey of 2000 American consumers on the performance of websites. Nine out of ten surfers expect the “robustness” of websites not to be affected during periods of heavy traffic, 61% complained of having had a negative experience browsing the website of a retailer and 75% of these went directly to a competitor’s website. In short, the conclusion is this: the customer is increasingly less patient (as many as 46% will desist if a website or an app doesn’t load within 3 seconds) and retailers would do well take this into due account, both on and off line.

dynatrace

Food and wine, the on-line boom. eBay Gusto (Taste) is born

By
Anna Muzio
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L'home page della sezione di eBay interamente dedicata a cibo e vino, in partnership con Tannico. Ma presto entrerà anche Eataly Net.

An increasing number of Italians buy food and wine on line: products of excellence or limited local produce, perhaps wines or cheeses tasted on holiday and which they want to try again. For convenience or for gourmet desire. A trend that, with the approach of the festive season, intensifies, due to lack of time or to try something really special. So much so that websites offering food and wine are proliferating and new competitors are arriving on the market. The latest is eBay which has opened eBay Gusto (in the picture the home page), a new section of the on-line auction website dedicated to food and wine, with 265,000 proposals and 1,000 wines from famous cellars at affordable prices selected by Tannico. And with an ace up its sleeve: the entry expected shortly of Eataly, which already has a website in the various markets (in Italy since last year) but which is apparently attracted by the opportunity to export to 176 countries, the catchment area of the on-line auction site.

Double-digit growth

The figures confirm the trend. According to research by eBay/Ipsos, Italians seek inspiration and are more active in on-line food and wine shopping during the pre-Christmas period: in 2013, on-line food and wine sales recorded a 31% increase in November and a 47% increase in December, for a total increase of 23% for the year, while exports grew, compared to 2012, by 46%. In addition, 65% of Italians said they were looking for inspiration before buying foodstuffs. The most popular products on eBay.it are biscuits, coffee and tea, with a sale every 2 minutes. Followed by Wines, with a purchase every 5 minutes, and Delicatessen, with an article every 10 minutes.

“Given the exponential growth in the marketplace of the Wine and Delicatessen category, the forecasts for the future are more than positive. And it will be Mobile promoting the growth of this category; already today, nearly half of the purchases made on eBay are in fact made via Mobile. Moreover, we decided to inaugurate the eBay Gusto section by giving space to the two most important brands in this sector: Tannico, which recently opened its own eBay Store, and Eataly which will open shortly”, explains Claudio Raimondi, eBay Country Manager in Italy.

Italian excellences

E-commerce is a very interesting channel for promoting Italian excellences and local products. So much so that eBay has signed a Protocol for the protection of PDOs and PGIs with the Ministry of Environmental, Agricultural and Forestry Policies and the Italian Geographical Indications Consortia Association.

“The partnership with eBay – says Franco Denari, CEO and co-founder of Eataly Net – combines the experiences of two different brands, but with a unique factor in common: continuous innovation in the digital world. On the one hand eBay, international and innovative, and on the other Eataly Net, which in one year has acquired significant experience in e-commerce. Transmitting via web the excellence of Italian food and wine is a key challenge for Made in Italy products and the eBay Gusto channel will be its best spokesman in Italy and in the world”.

E-commerce is growing in Italy, the Dot Coms are taking the lion’s share. Brick and mortar retailers are absent

By
Anna Muzio
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La dinamica delle vendite e-commerce B2C in Italia 2006-2014.

E-commerce continues to grow in Italy. According to the Digital Innovation Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano – Netcomm this year online sales will reach 13.3 billion euros, +17% compared to 2013. It would seem that, after years of fear and uncertainty about online payments and “virtuality” of goods that cannot be seen or touched, Italians (or at least 16 million of them) have finally succumbed to the attraction (or the convenience and affordability) of online shopping

Increasingly Mobile Commerce
didistribvenditepercomparto6-14From the dawn of the “mobile phone”, Italians have been great fans and owners, reaching the top of the world rankings. But they didn’t use it for the more advanced features (except for a number of few and far between early adopters). Now everything has changed, and after having downloaded games, fitness, budget management and social Apps, the smartphone is also used for shopping. So much so that in 2014 Mobile Commerce has doubled, with 1.2 billion euros in sales which, together with those via Tablets, count for 20% of total e-commerce.

Comparison with the physical store
What are the consequences for “traditional” retailers? Let’s start with the numbers: in value, e-commerce will increase this year from 2.6 to 3.5% of total retail sales and market penetration will increase especially in certain sectors such as Publishing (from 4 to 7%), IT (from 7.5 to 10.5%) and Clothing (from 2.9 to almost 4%). Taking the lion’s share are the Dot Coms such as Amazon, eBay and Expedia which alone generate more than half of the entire growth (22% compared to 2013) but also Privalia, Booking.com and the Italian Banzai and YOOX. They account for 54% of the value of online sales and, if we consider only products, excluding services, their share increases to 70%. And the weight of traditional producers and retailers is reduced to 14%. Not only: there are 1000 new start ups, of which 54 Italian, especially in Clothing, Furniture and Design and Food & Wine. According to Alessandro Perego, Scientific Director of the e-Commerce B2C Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano and Netcomm. “This percentage highlights the weaknesses of the traditional players (producers and retailers) which are still struggling to interpret online as a real alternative channel and that is why they are unable to play a leading role, as is the case in many Western markets. Despite more than 30 new online entries among traditional players in the various market sectors, we very often see a half-hearted approach. In our opinion, the strategy should be to design integrated multichannel approaches, aimed at exploiting to the utmost the real differentiator of traditional players, i.e. the store. In this context, also the Smartphone will have an increasingly significant role in uniting the physical and digital worlds”. A hybrid milieu in which the new “Super consumer” moves with ease, passing from real to virtual, perhaps buying online from the interactive display or touch screens in the store. Not forgetting that the web now influences one in four traditional purchases.

Food & Wine is growing, Grocery still a niche
In 2014, the percentage of large-scale distribution brands with an e-commerce site in the non-food sector increased to 55% (from 53% in 2013) and in the food sector to 10% (8% in 2013). Grocery has taken some timid steps forward, with a total market value of 160 million euros (+18%), but the incidence on total retail sales is still absolutely negligible (0.1%). Still in its infancy we might say. And yet the online potential is certainly there. Some hitherto insignificant sectors are emerging, such as gourmet Food & Wine (Eataly immediately springs to mind), with more than 200 million euros in sales in 2014 (+30%) and with huge potential also in digital exports. Furniture (130 million euros, +100%) and Perfumery and Cosmetics (40 million euros, +25%) are also doing well.

Comparison with others
confrontoconaltrimercatiIn the last year, in Italy, online shoppers exceeded 16 million, 10 million of whom made at least one purchase per month and generated 90% of sales. The average annual expenditure is approximately € 1,000, in line with the main European e-commerce markets (with the exception of the UK, which spends twice as much). The biggest values​(see table) are therefore due to the number of e-customers: in the UK there are 39 million web shoppers, in Germany 44 and in France 29 million. Anna Muzio

The 10 trends that will change e-commerce by 2020

By
Anna Muzio
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La presentazione della previsione n° 8 al Gartner Symposium/ITxpo è stata subito retwittata. Foto @Gartner_inc.

There was also Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft discussing e-commerce and e-economy at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, a series of meetings and seminars for IT managers, held this month in Orlando, Florida, in order to “understand, build and optimise the opportunities provided by digital technology and move from theory to practice”.

So what will shopping of the future be like? A true science fiction film, according to the Gartner forecasts, in which increasingly complicated algorithms take control of and decide our lives and (especially!) what to buy (carried out via smartphones and delivered with drones whistling over our heads), and with the store in the background that becomes place instilling emotions, a bit like a museum or art gallery.

Gartner, a consultancy company in the IT field, has issued its ten commandments, ten key trends that should regulate commerce in the future and that managers should certainly bear in mind. In the background, the focus, increasingly crucial for companies of the future, is to invest in people and customer experience.

1. By 2018, digital business will require 50% less staff for processes and 500% more experts in non-traditional roles such as integration specialists, digital business architects, regulatory analysts, risk professionals and lawyers.

2. By 2017, a successful digital business will be launched created by an algorithm.

3. By 2018, intelligent machines and industrialised services will lower the cost of commercial transactions by 30%.

4. By 2020, life expectancy in advanced economies will increase by six months due to the spread of wireless technology for health monitoring.

5. By 2016, e-commerce carried out exclusively via mobile devices and digital assistants will amount to 2.5 billion dollars. As a result, marketing campaigns will need not only to consider people but also to devise marketing techniques able to capture the attention of “digital personal shoppers”.

6. By 2017, in the USA “smartphone fever” will drive purchasing revenues via smartphone to 50% of e-commerce revenues. Companies will need to consider digital wallets (Apple Passbook, Google Wallet) in order to meet the growing consumer interest in commerce and payment via mobile phone.

7. By 2016, 70% of successful digital commerce models will be based on deliberately unstable processes. Company personnel will need to have increasingly greater flexibility and responsiveness to support organisational fluidity.

8. By 2017, more than half the investments in product and service research and development will be redirected to innovation of the customer experience. It will be increasingly important to know your customer through the identification of buyer personas and ethnographic analyses.

9. By 2017, almost 20% of e-commerce companies that sell consumer durable goods will use 3D printers to offer customised products.

10. By 2018, retailers using targeted messages together with Internal Positioning Systems (a kind of GPS able to exactly locate the customer in the store) will increase visits by 20%. Knowing the customer’s data will be essential in order to send targeted offers in real time, directly in front of the shelf.

Science fiction? Certainly not, the technology and its applications are already there, it’s just a matter of numbers. Just think of widely publicised innovations in the early stages only used by the niche of techno nerds, but then adopted by the many, all of a sudden: from the e-book to 3G on mobile phones. The future indeed is just around the corner.

Anna Muzio

 

 

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