There is no looking back and most people in retail are getting their heads around that.
Or at least that's what they're telling us.
Let's be honest, the past two years have been a bit of a 'land grab' from high street retailers seeking to annex their bit of ecommerce market share in the online world. To a greater degree, it has worked. Some of them have even managed to give pure-plays a run for their money and the popularity of click-and-collect has been a godsend for the high street.
Let's be honest, the past two years have been a bit of a 'land grab' from high street retailers seeking to annex their bit of ecommerce market share in the online world. To a greater degree, it has worked. Some of them have even managed to give pure-plays a run for their money and the popularity of click-and-collect has been a godsend for the high street.
But we can't help feeling there are some serious issues facing the clicks-and-bricks retail sector. One of which is that the poor service culture that we have become used to in the UK is seeping through to the online world. But the online world can be much less forgiving.
Let's take some examples.
Several times in the past month we have been bounced back from the Argos website with the message explaining that they are experiencing high volumes of traffic. Really? Higher than eBay? Than Amazon? Why do I care? Why should I not just go to one of your rivals?
Several times in the past month we have been bounced back from the Argos website with the message explaining that they are experiencing high volumes of traffic. Really? Higher than eBay? Than Amazon? Why do I care? Why should I not just go to one of your rivals?
For a digital retailer, whom we have been told over and over by management is planning for a digital future, how can they not cope with high traffics volumes? And not once but on multiple occasions?
It shouldn't even be an issue for a retailer like Argos and to us just serves to show the rhetoric doesn't match the customer experience.
Secondly, the 'flash' sale - a blanket sale designed to clear through slow moving stock with some serious discounts.
Again, in the offline world you might get away with this. But online - when I can walk into your shop ever minute of every hour of every day to check prices and see that products I bought last week are now on sale in all the same colours and prices I bought them in but for 20 per cent or 30 per cent less - it's a much less forgiving environment.
Again, in the offline world you might get away with this. But online - when I can walk into your shop ever minute of every hour of every day to check prices and see that products I bought last week are now on sale in all the same colours and prices I bought them in but for 20 per cent or 30 per cent less - it's a much less forgiving environment.
Put yourself in your customers shoes - how would you feel? In the case of Marks & Spencer, when your primary interest in holding the sale - let's be honest - is to drive top-line sales growth to give a good show for the City and save the board embarrassment, are you sure you are not putting red faces among the management team before those of your shoppers?
Ok, we all know that a Debenhams Sale is always round the corner - you take your pick and take your chances - but we expect a different set of rules from the likes of Marks & Spencer. They need to hold their nerve or face the consequences - a loss of trust in a very fickle world.
Sure, clear stock when it is not moving - line by line - but never collapse into sale until it is all really over and that should never be until a week before Christmas unless things really are falling apart.
We also heard a few anecdotal stories from John Lewis customers about deliveries not turning up - both at their homes and through the click-and-collect service. How is it possible for drivers - ones sent by John Lewis at that - not to be able to call individual customers and explain they are either running late or unlikely to show up?
Sure, clear stock when it is not moving - line by line - but never collapse into sale until it is all really over and that should never be until a week before Christmas unless things really are falling apart.
We also heard a few anecdotal stories from John Lewis customers about deliveries not turning up - both at their homes and through the click-and-collect service. How is it possible for drivers - ones sent by John Lewis at that - not to be able to call individual customers and explain they are either running late or unlikely to show up?
Finally, and perhaps to show that poor service is not just the domain of clicks-and-bricks, the unforgivable and sorry tale of Zavvi and those PS Vita consoles which we documented here. Threatening to sue your customers for your own mistake is really beyond the pale - and Zavvi's owner The Hut Group really should know better.
So why are retailers in the age of the internet and, let's be honest, what can at times be fairly rabid social media coverage of those errors, still bungling?
Cutting corners is not a uniquely retail fault but it is something that retailers have always felt comfortable with. How many of us have been made to feel by shop staff in the past year that we are the perpetrator when complaining about poor product or poor service rather than the victim.
But poor training, poor service and low investment in these areas are a symptom not just of the recession but of an acceptance that bad service at times is acceptable because the cost of getting it right 100 per cent of the time is too high. The idea is you get it right 80 per cent of the time and wing it the other 20 per cent accepting that staff will cover the blunder. Or that there will probably be casualties along the way, most of whom won't make too much of a fuss.
However, we feel that the standard - and particularly those displayed by the old-school, bricks and mortar retailers, who have grown up in the 80-per-cent-will-do school of customer service - are being found out and that those few per cent of disgruntled shoppers can become a very vocal minority.
And let's not forget, customer service includes living up to the benchmarks set by others who will make you look bad every time you fail to measure up on all the fronts mentioned above and more.
This Christmas has been a landslide victory for those operating online and an army of new shoppers have joined those who have long seen the benefits. But none of those people are going to become less demanding in the next 12 months.
So, no more excuses. It is time to measure up and become a true friend of the internet shopper or find yourself losing potentially loyal customers like a tap you can't turn off.
And these days, that is a cost you simply cannot afford.
So why are retailers in the age of the internet and, let's be honest, what can at times be fairly rabid social media coverage of those errors, still bungling?
Cutting corners is not a uniquely retail fault but it is something that retailers have always felt comfortable with. How many of us have been made to feel by shop staff in the past year that we are the perpetrator when complaining about poor product or poor service rather than the victim.
But poor training, poor service and low investment in these areas are a symptom not just of the recession but of an acceptance that bad service at times is acceptable because the cost of getting it right 100 per cent of the time is too high. The idea is you get it right 80 per cent of the time and wing it the other 20 per cent accepting that staff will cover the blunder. Or that there will probably be casualties along the way, most of whom won't make too much of a fuss.
However, we feel that the standard - and particularly those displayed by the old-school, bricks and mortar retailers, who have grown up in the 80-per-cent-will-do school of customer service - are being found out and that those few per cent of disgruntled shoppers can become a very vocal minority.
And let's not forget, customer service includes living up to the benchmarks set by others who will make you look bad every time you fail to measure up on all the fronts mentioned above and more.
This Christmas has been a landslide victory for those operating online and an army of new shoppers have joined those who have long seen the benefits. But none of those people are going to become less demanding in the next 12 months.
So, no more excuses. It is time to measure up and become a true friend of the internet shopper or find yourself losing potentially loyal customers like a tap you can't turn off.
And these days, that is a cost you simply cannot afford.
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