Today, while many retailers conduct business in multiple channels—brick-and-mortar stores, Websites, catalogs and call centers—few are adept at coordinating the various channels.
That is their loss—literally.
In the early days of online shopping, the big retail chains were slow to invest in an e-commerce channel because they thought it would cannibalize their store sales. Eventually they realized the Internet was not a threat, but an opportunity. Now retail chains account for a sizable share of total online sales.
Multichannel retailers (with retail chains or catalog/call centers) accounted for 56% of the Web sales generated by the Internet Retailer Top 500 Websites, and the magazine estimated that the sales of the 500 largest Websites represented 74% of total sales by online retailers in 2008.
Shop.org and Forrester Research also reported that multichannel retailers outperformed Web-only merchants in growing online sales, with 68% of multichannel retailers showing Web sales growth in Q1 2009 over the year before, versus only 39% of Web-only retailers.
“Demanding consumers expect retailers to provide more convenience, flexibility and personalization by leveraging the synergies that come from multiple sales channels,” says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Multichannel Retailing: A Competitive Differentiator.
Retailers covet multichannel shoppers because they spend more than single-channel shoppers.
According to Nielsen Online, CVS shoppers who bought from the retailer’s stores and Website spent 57% more in 2008 than the average CVS offline shopper and 62% more than the average CVS online shopper.
“Of all the different types of cross-channel shopping behaviors,” says Mr. Grau, “researching online prior to making an in-store purchase belongs in a class of its own.”
To find out more about consumer shopping motivations and behavior, check out the new eMarketer report, Multichannel Retailing: A Competitive Differentiator.