TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:Integrating online and offline channels also means integrating business operations. Progress was made in 2005 when retailers began selling and redeeming gift cards online, and giving consumers the opportunity to buy merchandise online, but pick it up in the store. In addition, many retailers are beginning to allow customers to return items they purchased on the Web in the store. Others are matching Web prices in stores, helping to overcome the quandaries of regionalized pricing. Shopper programs, such as discount cards and preferred customer cards, enable retailers to offer discounts and services that keep customers informed of discount specials or deals that can only be found in a catalog or on the Web site. These practices integrate the two channels, and have the further benefit of adding value to the shopping experience which, according to Rein, is the best way for retailers to compete with discount Web sites like pricegrabber.com.

Quote:...future ecommerce success will depend increasingly on how well retailers manage their multiple sales channels.

Consumer spending at U.S. online retailer websites has been growing at an annual rate of between 25 percent and 31 percent over the past five years, compared with single-digit growth in total retail spending...

Retailers also integrate their sales channels to keep up with consumer expectations. Some 97 percent of respondents...said they wanted a consistent multi-channel shopping experience... But another survey by the same research team found that 35 percent of respondents were not interested in a personalized shopping experience. Whereas online shoppers are wary about retailers misusing their personal information, they perceive no risk in a consistent cross-channel shopping experience because it does not come at the expense of valuable personal information...

Quote:How retail chains are growing their web strategies

... “At first all retailers were rushing to get online, but now they thinking about what their online business can do better or differently than their stores.”

Neiman Marcus Group Inc., she adds, is using NeimanMarcus.com to broaden its market for niche products like maternity collections. “It’s carrying maternity products online not offered in its stores, because it’s hard to justify targeting the small percentage that makes up the maternity market in any given store location.”