IslandPacific has provided operational solutions for the likes of AliceMcCall, Anthea Crawford, Bardot, Autograph, Millers, Nautica,Surfection, Rebel, Marcs and Karen Millen. Marketing manager DavidTyc offers an insight into online best practice.
The age old adage, 'Necessity is the mother of innovation' is as relevant today in Australia's retail sector, as ever - with the worst retail sales figures in the last 28 years being experienced by retailers across Australia.
The state of the current retail environment has forced many retailers to revisit their current trading model and attempt to refocus on the two key trading measures of increasing sales and cutting costs, especially those involving salaries and rent.
Astute retailers have turned to the web, more precisely online websites, as a new channel for Business To Consumer (B2C) sales. So why shift to the concept of etailing? What are the important considerations to take into account before embarking down the cyber path to a new retail world?
The obvious benefits with websites are that they do not require physical shop floor space, which translates into no rent or leases, storefit-outs, staff rostering and wages – all of which in the world of bricks-and-mortar trading, systematically erode bottom line profits.
It all sounds too good to be true and as with most new ventures, if not planned correctly, it could be all over before its begun.
Before engaging with the world of online retailing, thought needs to be given to internal processes, in particular, how the management and operation of a website will correlate with current internal workflows, especially when it comes to managing stock and customer service.
In terms of stock management, an important consideration is where will the stock physically be picked, packed and despatched?
Is there a central warehouse (larger retailers may consider their DC oran external 3PL), that may act as the pick face for all orders placedon the website or will orders be fulfilled and picked from a physical store – or perhaps a combination of both?
Other factors that should be taken into account, not only for planning internal operations but ultimately when it comes time to designing or picking your website, include:
Stock Availability: How to ensure that there is adequate stock available to sustain orders placed on the website – what contingencies are in place for stock outages?
Logistics: The processes associated with the shipping, packing and despatching of stock, staff availability and the impact to staff productivity - particularly if orders are picked and processed at a store. Will free delivery be offered? If so, it's an associated cost that will need to be absorbed and factored into the cost of doing business online.
Shipment Tracking and Updates: It needs to be remembered that online purchases require payment before delivery and as such, the consumer should be regularly updated as to the progress of their order and where their merchandise is at all times.
Return and Exchange Policy: How will returns and exchanges be handled for merchandise purchased online? Does the consumer have to post merchandise back to the merchants' head office or can they simply return/exchange goods at any brick and mortar store? How will these returns and/or exchanges be processed once they arrive at the required destination? A complicated or inefficient returns and exchange process may cause the consumer to reconsider any further online interaction with the etailer in question.
Th enext step is the website itself – the two main options available are:
Purchase an 'Out Of The Box' Website: These are websites that as the name suggests, are prebuilt. The majority of ecommerce functionality required is normally included with:
- Creation & Maintenance of Customer Website Accounts
- Generic Website Skins (aesthetic look and feel of the website)
- Provision to Define, Illustrate and Position Merchandise
- Online Shopping Basket
- Payment Gateway
- Order Progress & Verification
- Analytics & Reporting
Custom Design a Website: Typically the services of a web developer would be required in order to build or alter a website. The level of customisation required could range from minimal - taking a prebuilt website mentioned above and customising the website skin - to a much larger scale in building a completely customised site.
Whichever website option is chosen, two important factors to consider include,the requirement for the website to continue to look fresh and updated to keep users engaged and offer a positive shopping experience, in the same way as visually merchandising a traditional store. The other is that the website must be easy to use and navigate - complicated sites usually end up with high shopping cart abandonment rates and a low rate of returning customers.
Taking online retailing to the next step is the integration to existing merchandising and point of sale software, and the opportunity of omni or multi-channel retailing. In short, combining all sales channels into one streamlined operation and giving the customer a seamless shopping experience across the retail chain.