A decade or so ago, the Dot.com bubble burst and everyone was saying that the Internet was dead and nobody would ever buy things online again.
Of course that hasn’t happened – online sales have grown exponentially and now brands that haven’t invested in e-commerce are not only falling behind but also missing out on huge revenues.
The latest of these brands to be highlighted is supermarket chain Morrisons, which reportedly lost out on more than £300m-worth of sales by failing to put in place an online shopping channel. Research by Oxford Economics for marketing agency Head found that the lack of an online shopping presence between 2007 and 2010 had lost Morrisons £314m.
Apparently Morrisons has been cautious about moving online because it wants to ensure it can supply the right service for its customers.
“We’ve been cautious about moving online as we want to provide the right service for customers and for the business,” said head of media relations Julian Bradley.
“We expect to provide our first non food online service in 2012 and will be providing a food online service after that but only if we think the service is right.”
In its interim results, Morrisons announced that its acquisition of a stake in Fresh Direct was designed to evaluate how it could “develop a profitable food online business”.
A Morrisons team, headed up by former Apple and Lastminute.com online marketing boss Simon Thompson – who has been appointed as managing director of Morrisons.com for food – is currently in New York with Fresh Direct management working on this project.
The research by Head created an assessment, the Integrated Customer Experience Scale (ICES), to review how well digital and offline inputs of 100 UK retailers weaved together to create an “integrated customer experience”.
Weaknesses within multi-channel performance meant those retailers lost out on sales worth a combined £500m.
In contrast to Morrisons, its competitors scored well, adding sales because of their multi-channel performance. Tesco lead the way, adding sales of £255m in the period, with Asda, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s all scoring in the top ten based on ICES.
Although Morrisons has been tardy in its approach to e-commerce, here at 08Direct.co.uk we think they have simply been missing a string to their bow (albeit it very important and costly string). We believe in offering customers different ways to deal with us, because every customer is different. Some like to order 08 numbers online, whereas others prefer to speak to us, or talk to us via Live Chat on the website.
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