Consumers who shop in the luxury retail sector may expect more from online retailers in terms of shopping experience, ecommerce software and point of sale offerings, among other factors. A recent McKinsey survey looked into trends among this consumer demographic in the study "Digital Luxury Experience: Keeping up with Changing Customers."

The report revealed that online "window shopping" influences purchase decisions for more than 45 percent of luxury consumers, and researchers indicated this trend will continue to increase in coming months and years.

"Most shoppers may remain reluctant to purchase more expensive and custom products online, preferring to see them and touch them first," wrote McKinsey analysts, "but many will compare product features and prices online before settling on one to buy and choosing a retailer."

The researchers found that roughly three-fourths of luxury shoppers own smartphones and half own tablets, making it important for retailers to develop a streamlined omnichannel experience that can take users from their smartphones to their PCs to brick-and-mortar stores. For instance, allowing shoppers to add items to their digital shopping cart via a mobile device and having the selection ready for in-store pickup could give retailers an advantage in securing luxury sales.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, April 9th, 2014 at 11:45 am .

When people shop online, delivery options can make or break a sale, and offering click and collect as an option at the point of sale could prove useful for retailers. The UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper global survey conducted in fall 2013 revealed that online shoppers in Europe are willing to wait up to four days for domestic orders and as long as 10 days for international shipments – longer than those in other regions around the world. 

However, a new trend is taking place in the U.K. Planet Retail recently released study findings that showed a shift toward in-store pickup as the premier method of online retail delivery. In fact, "click and collect" online shopping may account for more than three-quarters of online orders in the U.K. in the next two to three years.

"Retailers should be readying themselves for this massive shift in shopping behavior and thinking beyond traditional collection points," said Natalie Berg, Planet Retail's global research director. "… Retailers must be prepared to forge relationships with some unconventional partners in pursuit of better serving the customer."

Click and collect services are currently only available from about two-thirds of the top 50 British retailers, and just 14 percent of online merchants have more than one delivery option. To capitalize on the growing demand for more shipping choices, retailers may want to invest in ecommerce software that allows them to diversify options for shoppers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, April 9th, 2014 at 10:12 am .

As more shoppers browse and buy online, the need for retailers to invest in better ecommerce software and improve the shopping experience will likely increase as well. A recent study by Compare Metrics and the e-tailing group found that while many shoppers enjoy online shopping for a variety of reasons, the offerings of ecommerce software tend to leave them feeling shortchanged in the product discovery process.

Finding the right product should be an easy and intuitive process, but 73 percent of shoppers interviewed for the study said they had issues with search options, from the various filters to a site's misinterpretation of a key phrase that limited results. For this reason, 70 percent of consumers looked for the items they wanted with browsing tools rather than search options, reserving the latter for highly specific inquiries that would not lead them to the wrong products.

"Consumers prefer to browse versus search," Garrett Eastham, CEO of Compare Metrics, told MediaPost News. "The more relevant the inventory, the more likely consumers are to engage and make a purchase."

Retailers that want to take advantage of this study's findings may want to look into new ways to improve the shopping experience in their online stores, whether by creating better search tools or simplifying their sites to make browsing easier and more exciting for buyers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, April 8th, 2014 at 6:40 pm .

India is currently experiencing major growth in its online retail industry driven in part by female shoppers and mobile purchases. The Internet and Mobile Association of India recently estimated the number of online retail businesses serving India to be approaching 1 million, and this sector is estimated to be worth about $12.6 billion, according to The Economic Times of India.

"Nearly 1 million large and small retailers make use of online marketplaces to reach out to their customers in India today," Subho Ray Friday, the president of the IAMAI, said in a release, the source reported. "These online retailers represent a very wide range of categories including electronics, books, apparel, accessories, footwear and jewelry."

Women are driving online sales growth
A recent report by global venture capital firm Accel Partners revealed that the online consumer base in India, which was 20 million in 2013, could reach about 40 million by 2016. This will largely be due to female shoppers, as they will grow five times more influential for online sales by 2016, especially in categories such as fashion, jewelry and motherhood products. Fashion ecommerce, for instance, is set to grow exponentially. It doubled between 2012 and 2013, and by 2016 Accel predicted this sector would increase another 400 percent. Jewelry, accessories and other female-led retail sectors are already making moves to online shopping platforms, according to the IAMAI report.

Mobile sales will continue to increase
Ladies aren't the only influence over India's online retail customer trends, either. Mobile users are becoming a formidable demographic for retailers as well. Tech Crunch indicated that India currently has about 155 million citizens using mobile devices to go online. Between 2012 and 2013, the amount of people using their phones to shop online increased by 800 percent, and that trend is expected to continue at a compound annual growth rate of 150 percent through 2016.

Having a mobile-optimized site will prove to be an advantage in coming years for retailers in India, as most online merchants have yet to invest in ecommerce software that works across multiple channels. As mobile shopping increases, Indian retailers may want to invest more time and funds into mobile marketing. Currently, the budget for marketing initiatives tends to be less than 10 percent of a company's overall marketing budget, according to the Accel study.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Tuesday, April 8th, 2014 at 11:21 am .

When you give customers more payment options at the point of sale, you may be encouraging them to shop at your stores again in the future, especially if you offer mobile payments. There are numerous mobile payment options already, such as PayPal and LevelUp, and now stores are entering the digital payment marketplace.

Major retailers, such as big-box stores, have begun to offer apps that shoppers can download and use to pay for their purchases instead of cash or credit cards, and this may be the wave of the future, according to Reuters. Recent Gartner research predicted that the global market for mobile payments is set to triple by 2017, which could give retailers a leg-up on the competition if they adopt this technology sooner rather than later.

Retailers don't necessarily have to develop their own mobile payment software, as there are plenty of third-party options to choose from. Reuters reported that the competition in this growing sector of consumer payment services could result in lower retailer fees for payment processing and bring down costs.

Gartner predicted that the mobile payment market could be worth as much as $721 billion by 2017, with more than 450 million people using the services to make purchases, so retailers might want to start looking into mobile payment options that they can integrate with their POS software to improve the buyer experience.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, April 7th, 2014 at 10:50 am .

When consumers are able to browse a website in their own language, they'll likely be more inclined to make a purchase than if they have to navigate a site in another language. Thankfully, ecommerce software and retail websites can be optimized to provide different language options.

A recent Common Sense Advisory Study revealed the importance of catering to an international clientele in terms of language. The study found that nearly 75 percent of non-English-speaking shoppers would rather buy products from sites that are in their native languages, and more than half will exclusively shop on sites in their own tongue.

Providing visibility in product descriptions and at the point of sale for an international audience can help to drive up sales. Business News Daily suggested a few different language options for retailers to expand their global audience. Crowdsourced translations, for instance, may be an inexpensive but lengthy option to convert a site to a new language. Retailers can also consider hiring professional translators or using translation services. It is important to know, however, that online translation tools like Google Translate may not generate perfectly accurate translations, which is why it may be beneficial to have a native speaker on board as well.

Internationally capable retail management software may provide retailers with a competitive edge both online and in-store. RetailPro offers retail management software that offers more than 18 language options, making it easy to implement language options that will be sure to please a global customer base and help a business grow.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, April 7th, 2014 at 6:19 am .

Everything moves faster in the digital age, so it is important that your retail business's customer service keep up with the fast pace. Social media can provide an excellent opportunity to improve and personalize the experience for your customers.

Even if you have ecommerce software that provides a traditional way for shoppers to contact your company, whether through email or a dedicated phone line, offering alternative methods for customers to reach out with questions regarding your products and services can create greater transparency. In turn, this may lead to better customer loyalty and improve your reputation as a merchant.

Practical Ecommerce suggested setting up a Twitter account that focuses only on customer service, giving customers an easy way to get answers. The added benefit of this is that inquiries and your responses will be visible to the rest of your customer base, so it can act as an alternative to a frequently-asked-questions page on your website.

Keep in mind that the way you respond to customers will be visible as well. U.S. News and World report suggested avoiding negative responses, as these can reflect poorly on the business. Deal with unhappy customers in a positive and helpful way rather than starting an argument.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, April 4th, 2014 at 8:05 am .

To reach customers and make sales, retailers need to ensure their marketing strategies are effective and visible to their audience, and mobile technology may hold the key to a successful campaign. A recent study from Yes Lifecycle Marketing revealed that mobile retail marketing is quickly becoming the main focus for many merchants. 

In the last quarter of 2013, 100 retail executives responded to the survey, and many placed more emphasis on mobile marketing for 2014 than they did in 2013. Specifically, 13 percent said they planned to invest the majority of their marketing budgets into mobile in 2014, whereas only 3 percent allocated the most funds to mobile last year.

"The future emphasis on mobile, web and social demonstrates the consumer need for marketers to seamlessly integrate online and offline shopping experiences," Yes Lifecycle Marketing president Michael Fisher explained. "This move underscores retailers' commitment to marketing across all channels."

Social media is seeing more interest as well. The study found that 46 percent of retailers are planning to convert their social channels into point of sale options for their customers by 2018.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, April 4th, 2014 at 6:52 am .

As the second quarter of 2014 begins, reports of month-over-month retail sales from countries around the world have begun to pour in, and most nations have seen improvements. For some nations, retail business intelligence reports from February were in line with expert predictions, while others saw better-than-anticipated improvements in this sector.

United States
The U.S. was one country where retail sales beat out expectations. Reuters reported that sales across the nation fell 0.4 percent in January, so economists were cautiously optimistic that they would increase 0.2 percent in February. However, once the month came to an end, February saw a rise of 0.3 percent, just slightly beating predictions.

United Kingdom
Food and online retail drove sales up in the U.K. this February, which saw an annual increase of 3.7 percent, according to Bloomberg News. This is three times higher than experts had predicted, showing that Britain's recovery from the recent global economic slump is continuing.

"Consumers are still loosening their purse strings," Samuel Tombs, a British economist told the source. He explained that the latest numbers show the economic growth is so far remaining strong in 2014.

Australia
Things are going well in Australia as well, as February marks the 10th consecutive month of growth for the nation's retail sector. The Sydney Morning Herald pointed to low interest rates as a driving factor of the 0.2 percent increase in retail spending. Unlike the U.S. and the U.K., Australia did not outpace predictions. Rather, the nation's retail market is behaving just as economists guessed it would.

However, the upward trend may slow in coming months, as one expert told the Herald that a dip in consumer confidence may result in slowed growth.

Eurozone
​Unlike Australia, the Eurozone experienced a rise in retail sales that far surpassed expectations. Experts had predicted this region would see a 0.5 percent decline, but it turned out that February's retail spending actually climbed 0.4 percent, according to RTT News. The news source indicated that while the month-over-month increase was good news, it didn't change much in annual terms.

As sales improve on a global scale, there is room for retailers to improve and expand their businesses. For instance, taking advantage of point of sale and ecommerce software to streamline and improve the buyer experience can help draw in and retain more customers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, April 3rd, 2014 at 6:52 am .

Tech-savvy shoppers these days expect high-quality experiences when they visit retailers, whether online or at brick-and-mortar locations. CIO pointed to trends such as showrooming and the rise in ecommerce spending as reasons retailers will need to look more closely at the services they provide customers and how applications can be streamlined into an omnichannel platform for more efficient use.

"Starting in 2014 and continuing over the next two to three years, retail will reinvent itself as omnichannel leaders reach for customer relationship, relevancy and reciprocity," said Robert Parker, vice president and general manager of IDC retail, Energy and Manufacturing Group.

Ecommerce software that provides secure point of sale options across devices, for example, may prove especially useful as more shoppers turn to their smartphones and tablets to visit retail sites. Marketing will play a major role in coming years as well. This sector of retail, along with advertising technology, is expected to grow 50 percent by 2017, according to CIO.

One way retailers can embrace omnichannel strategies is to create a custom, personalized experience for every shopper. Apparel reported that combining personalization with product transparency can provide real-time feedback for customers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, April 3rd, 2014 at 4:46 am .