Stephen Pratley, managing director at Shine Marketing, (shinemarketing.com) a specialist in eCommerce for upmarket brands, offers his predictions for the retail sector in 2010.
1. Mobile
2009 will go down as the year that mobile ‘finally arrived’, but – as yet – it hasn't really had a huge impact on the retail sector. Cheaper data deals and wider availability of cheap internet-ready phones means this will reach the masses in 2010.
The immediate opportunity for retailers is not so much in transactional mobile websites, but in getting exposure on mobile portals such as review and price comparison websites, which shoppers will increasingly turn to before making purchases in store. Make sure your price-matching policies are up-to-date!
2. Secret Discounting
Consumer confidence will take a while to recover from its recent battering, but the underlying love of shopping is still there. Any opportunity to get luxuries at a bargain will thrive, from TK Maxx, to private sales and VIP shoppers clubs, any method that allows lower prices than shown at the tills will remain popular.
3. Google to provide on-site search services for retailers
Actually we’ve already seen this with the release of ‘commerce search’ this month, but the hefty price tag will put most companies off. Expect to see a free small business offering emerge early in the year, something like Google site search for your product database. As this is typically a weak area on most SME’s websites the demand is already huge.
4. Luxury moves further online
High end brands have been slow to adopt ecommerce retail, and may efforts have been hampered by an emphasis on style over substance. Expect to see more luxury brands start to realise that many of their customers value the anonymity and 24/7 service the web brings.
5. More demand for international services
A continuing weak pound, and competition in a crowded British market will boost demand from abroad. We will see increasing demand for localisation of online retail sites and marketing campaigns, multi-currency trading and reliable overseas fulfilment.
6. The rise of sector mega-retailers
With genuine ecommerce and marketing skills failing to keep up with demand, many retailers have already turned to the huge portals such as Amazon and Ebay to sell their product online.
Expect sector-specific giants like ASOS to take a bigger share of the market, and offer premium services to brands in the way that Amazon has already done in the books market, creating savings made by pooling infrastructures and marketing skills.
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