Multichannelling : Forrester's Latest News

Great piece from Tamara Mendelsohn at Forrester Research. You can get the full article here. But the couple of key points I was interested in:

• This year, 16% of all sales will be influenced by the research people do on the web

• 43% of all purchases will be made at a retailer different to that retailer with whom they did their on line research.

Traditionally, on line research has been limited to big ticket or more technical purchases. For example, over at Bleeding Edge, Jeremy has a great post on how you can save up to 40% when IT shopping. But how far will people go? To what extent will we start to see this in the mass merchants and grocery channels?

Seems to me that consumers are more discerning about how they can use the Web. They still crave the need for instant gratification (i.e. they want the item in their hands now, rather than waiting for it to be shipped) but use comparisons off the web to get the best price. I wonder how the elements of customer service and location still influence the shopper decision?

If you're not going to be the cheapest - you need to be better at something. Better service, better location, better availability of stock - what else? Its a big ask for retailers, but how can suppliers and distributors add to this process?

• Retail sales training - help the retailer convert more shoppers


• Product training - the more information the consumer has usually means they'll ask much tricker questions when in store. In store staff need to be prepared.
  
• Stock availability - either on the shelf/floor, in the warehouse or available within 12-24 hours.

Any other ideas?

Jason Wenn