Shortlisted in the highly sought after category – Brandbank Multichannel Retailer of the Year, Halfords are up against fierce competition from other retail giants including, Argos (also a Salmon customer), Debenhams, House of Fraser, John Lewis, New Look and Tesco.

Sue Pratt, Head of Marketing at Salmon said, “Halfords and Salmon have worked together to develop their multi-channel proposition over the past few years. We are delighted that this work has been recognised by the judges.”

Halfords have a strong multi-channel offer, combining store, online, mobile and apps to deliver a compelling customer experience. They provide an excellent case study in how to ensure different channels perfectly complement each other.

Other Salmon customers also shortlisted at the awards include, Homebase, Boots, Pets at Home, Lloydspharmacy and Kiddicare – good luck to all.

The winners will be announced on the 15th March 2012, at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in the heart of Mayfair. More information on the awards can be found here.

“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).

Salmon have developed iPhone and Android apps for Halfords, extending their current mobile and multi-channel proposition.  The apps allow customers to shop, scan products and find their nearest store.

Mobile phone shoppers will receive a better online experience with the ability to research, locate and purchase products via the apps. The apps combine both web and app capabilities, providing Halfords with a cost effective solution and customers with a better online experience.

Jon Asbury, Halfords Channel Development Manager said: “We aim to give customers an even better online shopping experience through cutting edge technology. The apps are a natural progression from our successful mobile site. Customers will find the apps versatile, functional and easy to navigate.”

Read more »

For more information Econsultancy have a list of 10 ways marketers can use QR Codes in business, whether B2B or B2C.

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.

Halfords and Salmon have been shortlisted in two categories at the awards including “Mobile Solution of the Year” and Multichannel Integration of the Year“.

Neil Stewart, Commercial Director at Salmon said, “To be shortlisted in two categories is an achievement in its own right.  Last year Halfords were “Highly Commended” at the awards for their multichannel approach, and this year we hope to go one better.  Halfords are continually investing in new technology to improve the online experience for their customers and have demonstrated this over the last year with the launch of two new offerings that make their solution more relevant to the way customers want to shop today.”

Other Salmon clients also hoping to pick up an award include:  Argos, Game Group, Pets at Home, Boots and Kiddicare.

To view the full shortlist go here.

Good luck to everyone.

I was lucky to squeeze in a full day at Retail Bulletin’s Multi Channel Summit 2011 on Wednesday.  In this post I thought I’d document a few take-away’s from the key presentations, and additionally high-spot a few quotes from the various speakers and panels .  All in all it was a good day, and I recommend you add it to your calendar for 2012.  Enjoy the notes.

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Session: A Profitable Future Strategy in a Multi Channel World. Speaker: Simon Russell, Head of Multi Channel, John Lewis (JL)

To begin here are a few quotes from Simon’s presentation:

“Multi Channel does not mean online”
“What is key, is a seamless experience across the very many channels”
“Customer shopping habits are dramatically changing”
“How quickly can you change your business – to be able to sweat the asset – when the foundation is there to do so?”

Simon also highlighted the three typical categories of customers;

1. Acquired
2. Retained*
3. Reactivated

*Simon said notably that Retained customers spend “by far the most” with JL.

I also liked his graphic about the life-cycle of Multi Channel, this is my sketch of it.  This graph is an adaption of the Kübler-Ross model.  Where are you on the graph?

Delving deeper, Simon highlighted three key ‘tensions’ in evolving to a Multi Channel operational model and culture;

1. Internal competition
2. Channel profitability
3. Systems alignment

In terms of culture I was fascinated to hear that JL will introduce WIFI into their stores “and not shy away” from their price promise of being ‘never knowingly undersold’.   This is a very brave and bold stance given consumers hyper-connectivity to competitor pricing via smart phones. However, get it right, and JL will clearly engender a great deal of trust with shoppers by taking this approach imo.

Profiling JL’s inroads into systems alignment, Simon mentioned JL’s 130% yoy growth for their ‘Click and Collect‘ service – additionally naming it as JL’s fastest growing Multi Channel fulfilment method.

My ultimate takeaway was that JL are getting Multi Channel right.  We all know that anyway. Furthermore it’s so refreshing to see a Head of Multi Channel talk so little about technology.  That might seem strange coming from a CMO at a global SI but its been obvious to us at Salmon for some time that ‘cultural’ and ‘people’ based issues are far more complex than ‘technology’ when it comes to leading, steering and delivering any programme of change, particularly a transition to Multi Channel Commerce.

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Session: Driving wallet share and conversion through a consistent customer experience across every channel. Speaker: Jonathan Wall, Group eCommerce Director, Shop Direct Group (SDG)

Jonathan began by providing a brief review of SDG and their 8 marketing channels [catalogues, web, tablet, phone, mobile/sms, social, email, paid search].  What was fascinating was the revenue split by channel;

1. Phone – 30%
2. eCommerce – 67%
3. mCommerce – 3% (based on 5% visitor sessions)

Jonathan highlighted that according to Forrester 13% of clothing sales in UK will be bought via mobile – increasing to up to 15% in 2015.  So you can see a great shift already taking place for his customers, no doubt replicated elsewhere (n.b. lets remember Simon Russell’s earlier quote - “Customer shopping habits are dramatically changing”).

Jonathan also mentioned Facebook deals, and Facebook check-in’s being ‘sponsored’ in the future.  I could not agree more.  Its exciting, scary, fun and fast moving all in one.  I can easily imagine checking in at ‘Westfield’, ‘Oxford Street’ or ‘London South Bank’ and receiving vouchers, recommendations and deals for fashion brands, restaurants and museums. Taking it further into the Semantic web, a restaurant could offer discounts based on known table availability in real time etc. Awesome.

I found it very interesting that at SDG, mobile commerce AOV’s are 2% higher than traditional eCommerce! (although that is NOT the same in mobile Apps.)

Looking at near futures, Jonathan presented his belief that ‘images’ and not just QR codes have a big future in Multi Channel commerce, highlighting Google’s lead in this space. He described mobile if-you-like ‘connecting’ the Multi Channel experience. He also championed Amazon Windowshop as a great customer experience on tablets and slates which I share.

As an aside, it was interesting to hear from a predominantly ‘online’ retailer on his particular perspectives on Multi Channel. Understandably, in the absence of a high street presence, the emphasis was very much on mobile, but I imagine that pop-up stores, tablets and the complete integration of call centre operations are very high on the agenda at SDG (or is already an area where they have unique expertise).  It would be interesting to hear more about that. I’d also like to see SDG perhaps present on digital catalogues and their integration into the marketing-mix in the future. I am sure they are a critical component of their overall Multi Channel strategy.

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Session: Improving Customer insight and loyalty through a single customer view of the Multi Channel shopper. Speaker: Derek Ecclestone, Research Director, eDigital Research

Being a marketer I lean in favour of market research – and I do like the concept of ‘listening’ and turning ‘data’ into actionable ‘insight’; and then listening and learning again. Derek’s presentation provided a decent insight into the state of the nation – with the audience contributing their own contribution via WIFI voting handhelds.

71% of the conference audience (n.b. this will skew results, but still) said that their business was NOT fully capitalising on the mobile commerce opportunity.

Derek went on to say that, “Multi Channel integration was an EXPECTATION rather than a DELIGHT factor”, a scary thought for merchants just embarking on their Multi Channel journey.  This belief, combined with the fact that ‘Out of Stock’ remains the Achilles heel of reserve and collect models, illustrates just how critical systems alignment (right back into the supply chain) is vital for developing an excellent customer experience.  According to Derek, “2/5ths of all failed reserve and collect and home delivery transactions will see the shopper purchase from a competitor.” (Stats from Nov 2010 eDigital research study)

Derek offered up his simple way to measure lost sales:

% of potential Customers who fail to to buy due to integration issues
X
% who were lost to competition
X
Average shopping basket
= Cost of Integration fails / per month

On a positive note Derek says, “Obtaining Customer feedback is cheaper than ever” and that measuring, listening to, and responding to “continuous months of performance KPIs is key.” It was certainly food for thought.

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Session: Delivering a seamless reserve and collect service that delights your customers across any channel. Speaker: Chris Corbin, Head of Multi Channel, Halfords Group

(Disclaimer- Halfords are a Salmon customer, and we delivered the projects that Chris presented about)

“Stores and Service are at the heart of Halfords’ Multi Channel strategy”
“Online sales account for around 10% of total sales”

Chris started his presentation by highlighting Halfords, its trading model and what has worked in terms of Multi Channel.  This included these four areas;

1. Reserve & Collect advertising
2. Delivering a good site experience
3. Gaining in-store commitment
4. Meeting customer expectation

Chris went on to say that “cross functional commitment” is key to success.

I could go on more – as Chris’ presentation was excellent (one of the best on the day imho) but regular readers will have seen we’ve written lots about Halfords on this blog already.  For more info on the projects Chris discussed, simply follow these links:

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Other highlights

Mobile
One of the highlights for me were the various discussions on mobile, that filtered in throughout the day.  In the panel session entitled “Integrating Mobile into your Multi Channel Strategy” a few interesting perspectives were aired.  Mobile commerce still polarises people (and therefore organisations) and the apps vs. optimised mobile commerce website debate simmered gently.

Because each merchant has a different target audience with different affiliations to smart phones, its easy to see why this polarisation occurs. But four key retailing themes emerged, that transcend a debate about apps or optimised sites or iphone and android. Demographics aside, the context of mobile in retail involves these topics and I hope they weren’t lost on delegates.  They were;

1. Loyalty
2. Location
3. Personalisation
4. Localisation

Whilst Fergus Boyd (Acting Head of eBusiness, Virgin Atlantic Airways) said that it was his belief, “an app maintenance bubble is arriving” (a great point in my opinion) he also went on to discuss the true merits of mobile which was refreshing.

Culture
Simon Forster, Director of Debenhams.com came out with a beauty : “Multi Channel is an ‘AND’ culture.  Not an ‘OR’ culture.”

Priorities
IMRG say the top four priorities for 2011 in retail are;

1. Having an effective Multi Channel offering
2. Innovation
3. International
4. mCommerce

Legal
A discussion on “Cookies, Customers, Consent“ was very interesting.  The presentation by Mike Butler (Partner and Head of Commercial Law, Squire Sanders Hammonds) centred on the “Data Directive” [Directive 95/46/EC] and the e-Privacy Directive [Directive 2009/136/EC] which are as ‘grey’ as legal matters can possibly be it would seem!  The take home was that ‘Cookies’ sit at the centre of the debate with regard to privacy; and that the debate centres on ‘harvested’ vs. ‘collected’ data ['harvested' being unknown by the customer, 'collected' being known by the customer].  Bluring the regulation further is the issue of ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ IP Addresses.  At the moment a static IP address are deemed ‘personal info’ in the UK.

Whilst it is blurred regulation wise, any complex eCommerce implementation comes into sharp collision with regulation, so it can’t be ignored.  Here’s two instances that will stop you thinking ‘what’s the fuss?’

1. Internationalisation – clearly brings with it different regulation per geographies. France and Germany for instance (and increasingly Holland) have strict privacy regulations compared with the US and UK.
2. Personalisation (incl. behavioural targeting) –  clearly brings to bear key issues such as ‘transparency’ and in particular ‘transparency’ vs. ‘consent’.

Interestingly as the US is coming more inline with the UK with regards privacy (Yes, you read that right) , the legal side of Multi Channel eCommerce remains as fast moving as ever. Watch this space……

Social Media
I have to say I was disappointed with the social media content at the conference.  Being told social allows a merchant “to have 1-to-1 conversations with customers”, felt like I’d been thrown back 4 years and unfortunately it tethered the debate at a level that was perhaps too high level from the outset.

However, Fergus Boyd (Acting Head of eBusiness, Virgin Atlantic Airways) at least offered more detail, highlighting Virgin’s strategy around the 3 S’s – Selling, Socialising and Servicing.  I also felt that Kiddicare‘s Simon Harrow (disclaimer:  Kiddicare are another Salmon customer) did more than most to explain how social media actually lowers costs (hooray – its not just about selling) in areas like customer support.  For the record, Kiddicare has created customer self service areas and FAQs together with a searchable database of support and service issues, directly integrating their forays into social right into their overall eCommerce strategy.

Perhaps more interestingly, Simon also suggested delegates should take a look at charities and their social media exploits, because they typically have a culture built around ‘helping’ and that they now benefit from a self fulfilling prophecy around the culture of ‘service’.

Whilst the debate about social media was generally high level, areas like SEO benefits were also mentioned, as were the usual suspects in terms of ‘Who is getting it right‘ – take a bow once more ASOS [Community site], M&S [facebook], TopShop [facebook]and Next [facebook].  Also huge credit to Charles Tyrwhitt, whose directors we were told, actively engage in social media circles and fold consumer feedback as far into the brand as is possible – product design. For the record other brands mentioned positively were BestBuy, Eurostar, SouthWest Airlines and JetBlue.

Other

“uCommerce” was mentioned. I’m not sure what it means but I’d hazard a guess at ‘ubiquity’, ‘uniqueness’, ‘universality’ or maybe even ‘unison’.  All the words seem applicable!

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I think that is as much as I can document.  As always the networking was very useful too.

Did you attend the conference and did I miss something big?  I’d love to hear from you.

We were delighted to announce earlier today that Halfords (the UK’s leading specialist retailer for automotive parts and accessories, cycling and leisure) has launched its first ever transactional mobile website, a project we have been planning and working on since the summer.  The project builds on the success of Halfords’ dotmobile site, which went live in August 2010 and is reported on here.

Since the launch of the dotmobile site, Halfords has seen mobile visitor numbers increase to 8% of Halfords’ dotcom total. Conversion levels have also doubled.  However, the announced enhancements enable customers to pay for orders via their mobile phone.

Chris Corbin, Head of Multichannel at Halfords said:

“More and more of our customers are accessing our site via mobile and we want them to have the same experience as they have from a computer. Smartphones point to how trends in shopping habits are changing fast.”

What was pioneering about this project was that the initiative makes Halfords the first retailer in the UK to offer such a variety of delivery options via a smartphone.

To support true cross channel shopping habits, mobile customers have access to Halfords’ extended range of products – but importantly the same fulfilment options that are offered on the main Halfords.com site, offering a compelling and ultimately valuable shopping experience. This means that mobile customers can choose from a variety of ways to shop;

In addition, mobile customers can search for products, read customer reviews, compare products, and find their nearest store with stock.

Payment for goods, a hot topic in mCommerce circles, also saw the Halfords and Salmon teams provide customer choice.  Shoppers can pay by credit/debit card, or by using PayPal; the same payment methods supported by Halfords.com.  In another first, Halfords is the first mass UK retailer to offer PayPal as a mobile payment method.

For those readers who like even more detail, the mobile platform was developed using the same underlying architecture as Halfords.com, namely IBM WebSphere Commerce. Developing the transactional capability involved complex integration by Salmon between the mobile site, DataCash and PayPal to offer 3-D Secure.  Salmon also integrated the mobile site with Multimap (now Bing Maps) , SAP and Store6.

***Update: 14:22 PM Aug 24th – Halfords: Mobile Site Review by eConsultancy
***Update:  2:52 PM Aug 16th - Since Friday’s launch mobile conversion has doubled!***

Today we announced the successful development and launch of Halfords’ mobile platform, enhancing the retailer’s multi-channel proposition and delivering a unique and compelling mobile shopping experience for its customers.

A staggering 5% of traffic to www.halfords.com is from internet enabled mobile phones, and Halfords have reacted by having us develop a mobile platform such that visitors to Halfords.com using a mobile device will automatically be directed to the new mobile platform.

The solution allows visitors to;

• Search for products
• Read customer reviews
• Make product comparisons
• Locate their nearest store that stocks the desired product
• “Reserve and Collect” the item.

Customers benefit from the same common design elements and features that make Halfords.com so successful.  Here is what the Head of Halfords.com had to say this afternoon;

The internet enabled mobile is becoming the essential tool for shoppers. We are seeing a huge increase in customers who are researching products and making shopping decisions while on the move.  We see a huge opportunity for growth of our online business by improving the shopping experience for mobile visitors. So we are aiming to make our site more relevant to the way people want to shop.
Chris Corbin, Head of Halfords.com

Halfords.com is already growing fast, with online revenues up 70% year on year in the first quarter, with visitor numbers now running at over one million people a week.  Early results from the Halfords mobile platform show that visitors really appreciate the new lay out and easier access to essential information and conversion rates are significantly up.

We’ve been helping Halfords implement their eCommerce and multi-channel strategy since 2005, delivering “Reserve and Collect”, “Home/Work Delivery”, “Text and Reserve” and more recently “Free Delivery To Store”; all of which leverage Halfords’ existing IBM WebSphere Commerce based architecture.

“eCommerce Platforms – an internet retailing special report”   is the current supplement for the March edition of Internet Retailing magazine – and is certainly worth reading if you are looking at eCommerce Platforms from various angles, with  a view to an implementation project in 2010 or 2011.

In it, Marcus Austin discusses “The New Frontiers” for eCommerce, namely rich media and webservices.  Co-Founder of Salmon partner 10CMS, James Brooke predicts that “the number of choices….in an eCommerce portfolio is liable to get even bigger over the next year.” He goes on to discuss the role of ‘lifestyle video’, ‘user generated content’, ‘video merchandising’ and ‘rich media’ such as drag and drop, zoom and carousels. Austin also talks about the 3D revolution (more about that here), taking eCommerce solutions by storm [augmented reality and 3D content are both featured] as well as personalisation and mobile.

Dig further into the supplement and you’ll find Arif Mohamed discussing the hot topic of the moment “the convergence of online and offline” and this is further debated by Austin in “Navigating the eCommerce channels”, in which it is highlighted that “true cross channel eCommerce needs to start with a radical rethink of your IT infrastructure.” Powerful stuff.

Salmon customer Halfords (more on them on our corporate site here by the way) feature prominently, as does the “Text & Reserve” project that we announced for Halfords back in September, which continues to receive rave reviews.  Back office integration and logistics are also considered in detail.

And finally, Internet Retailing’s supplement editor Chloe Rigby takes the much needed longer term view on the real issues related to spending a large sum of money on a new eCommerce platform.  Rigby debates the key role ‘Planning’ plays in figuring out whether to ‘own’ or ‘rent’ your platform.  Great stuff.

You can view or download the entire 36 page supplement here.  Enjoy.