Alibaba.com, the Chinese online marketplace, has released an infographic comparing how much consumers are set to spend online by 2015.  The infographic compares retail eCommerce sales in the US, China, UK, France and Germany and brings together some interesting statistics.

In 2012, the US was the biggest market with consumers spending $209bn (£138bn) online, followed by China at $194bn (£128bn).  UK consumers spent $113bn (£75bn). However, in 2013, it’s predicted that things will change, with Chinese consumers spending $265bn (£175bn), US consumers $230bn, (£152bn) and UK consumers $123.4bn (£81bn). And by 2015,  Chinese consumers are predicted to spend $445bn (£293bn) online, compared with $270bn (£178bn) in the US and $143.6bn (£95bn) in the UK.

Other statistics from the infographic  -

• More than 242m people (48% female and 52% male) shop using the internet in China – six times more than in the UK
• Chinese shoppers spent an average of £703 a year in 2012, compared with the £1,083 spent in the UK.
• 12% of purchases were from mobile phones
• Top of the list for what Chinese shoppers is apparel and accessories at 68%.

 

MorrisonsCellar Home Page

Salmon, has helped Morrisons to launch its first transactional eCommerce site, MorrisonsCellar.com, which focuses on selling a comprehensive range of wines and offers customers a unique, personalised and enjoyable shopping experience, including:

An interactive Taste Test allowing customers to discover those wines most likely to suit their palate via three simple questions

The case builder tool giving customers the ability to build and keep track of a mixed case of wine

Integration with Facebook allowing customers to share information with their friends

The new site is built on the same infrastructure as Kiddicare.com, (part of the Morrisons family) using WebSphere Commerce, Coremetrics, Endeca and advanced content management functionality developed by Salmon.

Since the site went live:

• Repeat customers average 15 percent
• All KPIs have been greatly exceeded – visitors, conversion and sales
• Conversion is above expectation, due to the success of the taste test and the depth of the product range

Discussing Morrisons first venture into eCommerce, Scott Weavers-Wright, Kiddicare CEO and Kiddicare and Morrisons.co.uk General Merchandise Managing Director said; “This is the first step in Morrisons branded eCommerce and will enhance the overall wine offering for Morrisons. It will also provide valuable lessons on business processes and systems which will support the launch of other web sites and multi channel services. We knew that the underlying platform, WebSphere Commerce, and functionality would enable us to deliver the new site quickly and yet be scalable for the future.”

Ken Platt, Head of Multi Channel eCommerce Delivery for Morrisons.co.uk, added: “Morrisons has a late mover advantage. By creating a scalable platform, focussed on user experience, the rapid roll out of further categories is certain and promises to set Morrisons.co.uk apart from its competitors.”

Salmon has provided a wide range of eCommerce services to design and implement the site and will provide 24/7 application support. Salmon used innovative working practices and approaches which combined Morrisons’ deep understanding of wine and customer behaviour with Salmon’s extensive eCommerce expertise. These enabled Salmon to deliver an innovative and functionally-rich site in a short period of time, which not only matched Morrisons business vision but also enhanced it.

Craig Harper-Ashton, Director of eCommerce at Salmon said; “Salmon played a key role in making MorrisonsCellar.com a reality. We are delighted to see Morrisons realise the benefits of the new working practices adopted for this project.”

About MorrisonsCellar.com Taste Test
A clever, interactive test to help guide consumers through the mystery of wine, the Taste Test is based on a scientific principle relating to the number of taste buds any one person possesses. Consumers will be asked three simple, non-wine related questions, the answers to which are then converted by a complex algorithm and a piece of clever technology to reveal a score and flavour profile. The four profiles are sweet (0-3), fresh (4-6), smooth (7-9), intense (10-12).

The entire range of Morrisons’ wines has been tasted by a six-strong team with calibrated palates and awarded a score against agreed criteria to enable it to fit within one of the four profiles. Red, whites, sparking and fortified have all been judged using the same scale so if a customer is a score 4 it is expected that wines within the fresh category of all colours will appeal to them.

The eCommerce marketplace is fast becoming a truly global one, and one of the fundamental questions when creating a global online strategy is whether to have one website to cover all regions, or multiple websites with separate domains (e.g. .co.uk, .it, .de). As an eCommerce supplier, we are often asked which of these approaches are “the best”. The answer, as often is the case, is that it depends on a number of factors…here’s a handy checklist of things to consider when answering the most fundamental question of your global eCommerce strategy.

How big is my website management team?

If the answer to this is “small” (okay so that’s subjective, but I usually consider a small Read more »

Christmas 2012 may still seem a long way off but now is the time when retailers need to be getting their websites ready for their busiest time of year.  I recently managed to get some time with one of our site performance experts and asked him for some advice on how retailers  can ensure tip-top website site performance at peak traffic periods.

What should retailers be doing to prepare for an increase in traffic?

It can take the entire peak-to-peak cycle to prepare properly, so the question could be rephrased “what should retailers have been doing since their last peak?” If  they haven’t already done so, carry out a capacity review – looking at the current load on the end-to-end IT solution, reviewing server statistics etc. plus marketing plans and business forecasts. Read more »

Content management is a topic that can send shivers down the spine!  Not because it’s particularly hard necessarily, but if you ask 10 people what it means you’ll quite likely get 10 different answers!  Delivering to exceed expectations becomes challenging if you’re not entirely sure what the expectation is!

An interesting  question regarding content management on eCommerce sites is how to manage “assets” that can be associated with your product range (or used more widely within the overall site).  It’s pretty well documented already that providing related, contextual “content” will add significant value to the customer in terms of branding, value-added services and ultimately in improving the shopping experience and likelihood to buy.

Nothing new here of course; this concept is pervasive throughout eCommerce right now: buyers guides, videos, alternate and enhanced images, “how to” guides, comparisons and the list goes on.  The value curve of course is, the more content the better as long as it meets some golden rules: it must be relevant, it must be contextual and it must show value. Read more »

It’s often said that opposites attract.  As far as personal relationships are concerned, I haven’t found this to be the case.  However, for people working in the eCommerce and multi channel world, the ability to attract or bring together opposites is becoming increasingly important.

Here are six sets of opposites that come to mind:

• Developing strategic IT architectures and embracing rapidly emerging technologies.
• Listening to what the customer wants now while anticipating their future needs.
• Balancing cost versus capability in solution design.
• Delivering personalised customer experiences and super-fast web site performance.
• Managing divergent goals of stakeholders from marketing, stores, supply chain, IT and finance.
• Building sound return on investment cases in the context of rapidly changing business models and technology.

(I’m sure there are many more than six, so would welcome your thoughts on others.)

So why is the ability to attract opposites important ?

Read more »

“Internet Retailing” magazine (n.b. takes you to the  July/Aug 2011 digital edition) is focused upon serving the UK and Europe’s leading multichannel and pureplay retailers. Inspired by the very best, and commercial to the core, Internet Retailing analyses, stimulates and challenges the etail community with news, analysis, events and insight.

In the latest edition, we are delighted that a Salmon retail project, Halfords has been showcased.  Emma Herrod speaks to Jon Asbury, Channel Development Manager, Halfords, about how system integration has improved customer choice and encouraged mobile interaction. The interview covers Reserve & Collect, Text & Reserve, Advice Centre, Order & Collect, Distribution, M-commerce site, iPhone and Android apps.

To read the full story click the image above, or simply go to Internet Retailing Magazine. (The Halfords/Salmon story starts on pg. 10 of the digital magazine).

Tesco Video

Tesco: Homeplus in South Korea offer customers a new way of shopping via their SmartPhone and QR Code technology.  It’s proving popular with customers there.  I’m not sure we have the same issues in the UK as Korea do to warrant this here, they are quite a unique market, but this does offer customers an alternative shopping method and is a great visual reminder.  See for yourself here.

Microcopy might be just a small part of the online experience but it’s vitally important to customer experience and conversion and often overlooked.

So when you are designing for the web, take a minute to stand back and think about the microcopy, as ironically the smallest bits of copy can have the biggest impact on business and be the cause of a great or ghastly online customer experience.

Microcopy refers to the little instructions and phrases used on web pages to guide and reassure customers and can make the difference between someone signing up for something, or entering their credit card details or not.

Read more »

** Update 28th June 2012** Useful post from Econsultancy here on why responsive design is good for Google and for site visitors.

Change happens more quickly than perhaps we might like when it comes to the web.  But one thing remains the same, customers demand the ultimate experience when they interact with your brand, whether on the web, in store, via their mobile phone or iPad.  As a website owner, designer or developer, this has its challenges. Can we continue to support each new device, input mode and browser with its own bespoke design and experience?  Surely this will become unmanageable and impractical as the number of devices increases, requiring endless new designs and resolutions.  So what’s the answer?

Responsive web design is one approach.  It suggests that the design and development need to respond to the user’s behaviour and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.  By designing responsively you also take into consideration what might be just around the corner and let’s face it, there are  bound to be a number of new gadgets we need to cater for over the next few years without compromising on experience.

Practice responsive web design – Although responsive web design has been around for some years it is now coming into its own as the number of devices and different browsers are on the increase.  In the next few years it will become increasingly expensive if websites aren’t designed responsively.  How many different sites are you prepared to pay for?  For those retailers that want a distinctly different experience on the website or mobile then this may still be the answer, but not everybody will be able to afford this.

So what is responsive web design? Not to be confused with “fluid” designs, it’s when the layout and design of the website “responds” to the user’s device.  Instead of tailoring disconnected designs to the web, mobile or any other device, designs are treated as facets of the same experience.  If they are designed optimally using standards-based technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 they will be flexible enough and adaptable enough to cope with any device that renders them, be that a PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod or TV.

As a case in point, Salmon have introduced Halfords to this on their mobile site.  www.halfords.com.  When you view the product details page in both landscape and portrait on an iPhone or Android phone the components move around to make use of the available space, optimising the layout to changes in window size and device resolution.

Halfords also cleverly uses HTML5 - when customers enter personal information like an email, postal address or telephone number, the keypad automatically changes to provide customers with the relevant data needed such as an @ sign, full stop, letters or numbers, without being prompted.  To really see the benefits of responsive web design you need to view the same content on different devices, another good example is the website of designer Simon Collison.

Although designing responsively has huge possibilities allowing you to target devices and serve different crisper sites to each device, it is still in its infancy and isn’t without its challenges.  Take testing as an example.  No longer will you simply test the design on Internet Explorer or Firefox, but the iPhone, iPad, TV and whatever device is next will all need to be considered.

Designers will need to write much cleaner code and retailers will need to buy into the fact that some small compromise on design when viewing the site on Internet Explorer will in fact be worthwhile as they will be getting a future-proof design across all devices.

For more information on the concept of responsive web design, Ethan Marcotte wrote an article about the approach for A List Apart and another book worth reading is Hard-boiled Web Design by Andy Clarke.