In September 2009, NIIT Technologies Ltd co hosted an event with leading UK retail analysts Verdict entitled ‘How to win the e-retail battle’ at the very apt venue – the War Cabinet Museum, London. The event was well attended and featured presentations on strategies for successful e-retailing from Verdict and NIIT Technologies Ltd.
The early morning breakfast briefing discussed the effects on e-retailing in the downturn; The future size of the e-retail opportunity; How to deliver on the needs of the online shopper; Strategies for e-retail success in 2010 and beyond; How to link store and site for a true multi-channel proposition; The latest technological developments in e-commerce; and How to use technology to improve the e-retail experience.
Neil Saunders, Malcolm Pinkerton and Matt Piner (Retail Analysts) from Verdict presented their findings on the current e-retail business environment and was joined by Vijay Ghei, Vice President of NIIT Technologies Ltd who presented e-retail technology best practice.
With past recessions in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s taking an average of 12 quarters to recover, the current recession is predicted to take longer at 15 quarters. This really set the scene highlighting the difficulty of the battle that lies ahead for all retailers.
Verdict reported how the online shopping population has grown from 17% in 2003 to 60% in 2009 and is predicted to grow much more slowly to only 66.2% of the population shopping online by 2013. Growth in the UK will become ever more difficult to maintain due to the market maturing and saturation with strong competition.
Growth rates are also set to decline, the past 5 years (2003-2008) have seen growth at 270%, but this will decline to 69% over the next 5 years (2009-2013). These hard hitting statistics will require retailers to adopt coherent targeted strategies as customer growth slows down and spend growth becomes more elusive.
Verdict’s strategies for success revolve around 4 strategic stages: Target, Engage, Persuade and Secure. The strategic stages were complemented by Vijay Ghei illustrating examples of how retailers have benefited from our services and solution offerings in a number of the stages.
UK retailers have to adopt strategies to an ageing and thriftier population, and consider new techniques such as affiliate sites and viral marketing to engage with consumers. Only the strongest brands will succeed with direct marketing to the consumer, whilst the remaining brands will rely upon influencing the influential.
In the UK some £3.7bn is lost in sales to cart abandonment, and this is one of the areas where NIIT Technologies Ltd will be strategically targeting campaigns to assist retailers with click to chat services, faceted navigation techniques and other well tried and tested offerings.
The War Cabinet Museum
Inside the War Cabine Meeting Room where Churchill undertook his meetings
Guests at the event