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August 31, 2006
Online shopping carries on surging
The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) has just released it latest stats on online retail spending and found that internet sales are growing ten times faster than those on the high street. I’d hate to work in the PR department of the IMRG, whose Index has become the monthly barometer for the ecommerce industry, I mean, how many ways can you say, “online spending is growing and high street spending is suffering”? I imagine more head scratching, shoulder shrugging and espresso-drinking goes on in those brain-storming meetings before the monthly press release than in the daily “let's get 'Two Jags' out of jail again” crisis meetings at The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. So, to recap for any retailers who haven’t got it yet: INVEST IN AN ONLINE PRESENCE, or you’re likely to end up about as profitable as a…well I’ve run out of similes but you get my point.
It’s also a struggle for us hacks to write something new and refreshing when these kind of reports are relesed, because the message for firms is the same each time (see above), whether you express it in percentages, fractions, or pounds, shillings and pence. But if your firm wants to follow the big boys like Amazon, eBay and Tesco, throwing money at a fancy website just ain’t good enough these days. Without the infrastructure to support it, from supply chain management to web site performance monitoring, you may well find you end up losing more customers then you ever thought you had if it all goes Pete Tong during busy periods.
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