Andrew McClelland from the British business organisation IMRG tells us that Great Britain had a growth of 21 % last year, and for the first time the turnover was over 100 billion pounds. E-commerce is an impressive fourth of all retail. The consumers are more fastidious and have larger possibilities to influence since the competition is hard in Great Britain.
What can we Learn from our Colleagues in the West?
Kate Ancketill from the analys company Creative Intelligence talked about what we can learn from our business colleagues in the west and why Great Britain is in the front. She gave several examples on how to use the digital technology in a successful way in retail.
Peak Performance launched their summer collection 2015 by opening pop up stores that only could be reached through mobiles in distant places in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. For example a lake in the French Alpes, and a green at the eight hole at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai. The stores were only open during the hours of the day where sunset and sunrise made the selected spots most impressive. The customers could get access to the stores through their mobiles and get free samples from the new collection. The attention was huge!
Great Britain has at a larger scale succeeded in the omnichannel think with customer focus. Why have a channel think when you can focus on the customer think? Create an experience for the customer all the way, and build an organization for the customer. You should always strive for all channels to link together, everyone is not even close today, but several are on their way, and that is the most important thing, if you have that think, you will get forward.
They have come further in the work with Brand ambassadors – having a long term connection with the customer instead of several contacts with customers. They aim for longterm and personal contacts with their customers, and are informative. Storytelling is something that we see everywhere, feel free to be innovative and use new media. The future commerce will build more and more on relationships, something that can gain the smaller actors, and demand more of the larger ones so that the customers are not just a number.
The use of mobiles is of course also increasing in Great Britain. There are more mobiles than bank accounts – why should it still be so hard to pay on your mobile? The delivery is another important part, work with the last mile. We spend a lot of money on the buying experience before we click on Buy, but what happens after with the delivery and customer interaction?
What we can do Better in Sweden
Great Britain has come a long way in the integration between the digital and physical commerce. Per Sigvardsson, CEO at Granngården with a background in the British home electronics chain Dixons Retail, talked about that they are better to look after the customers in several channels simultaneous. He also stressed the importance to think of a customer as a customer despite the channel. He was sceptical to focus on mobiles too much as sales channels, and stressed that it is important to keep focusing mainly on desktop. The mobile is a way to interact with the customer and is often used for research. Create a journey for the customer and decide how it should look. Keep the journey in the mobile connected to the entire customer experience.
He also talked about the importance of store for the retail experience, and that ”stores are the new black” for e-commerce businesses. E-commerce is not the end for stores – the customers experience change, and the retailers must do the same.