multi-channel - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Reserve and collect services are all the rage at the moment as retailers integrate their online and offline businesses. But few – if any – have developed an equivalent offering for marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

One company that is looking to do so, however, is footwear chain Schuh; one of the most prolific sellers on eBay UK. 

More and more retailers are turning to the humble catalogue to help drive their web businesses, according to stats from e-commerce association Shop.org.

The data (via AdAge) shows catalogues are moving up firms’ to-do lists and are increasingly being judged by the ‘flick-to-click’ sales they manage to generate.

Capital One's European head of brand marketing Justin Basini talks about the challenges of resourcing and measuring multi-channel campaigns, as well as ways in which the web has affected how consumers research and buy financial services.

Retailers that offer a seamless experience across online and offline sales channels are set to be rewarded by consumers, according to a new survey.

The Sterling Commerce study found 57% of US shoppers wanted the ability to return or exchange products in-store, regardless of whether they had bought them from a website, catalogue or shop.

There’s an interesting study out today from Jupiter Research that adds weight to the notion that offline advertising plays a big part in driving targeted and demand-driven search activity.

The survey, responded to by over 2,000 internet users in the US, found 67% of the online search population had been driven to the web to look for something they had seen or heard of offline.

This reflects our thinking, and mirrors what we've been hearing anecdotally. Nobody visits Google without having a search query in mind. What triggers such a query? Offline advertising is one such influencer, and Jupiter has some good stats on this after the jump...

Four out of five home shoppers have engaged in ‘flick to click’ shopping in the last year - finding products in an offline catalogue before purchasing them online, according to research.

The Experian poll, covered by The Retail Bulletin, will give cheer to retailers that have integrated their marketing across online and offline channels.

Martin Newman is the head of e-commerce at fashion chain Ted Baker and is one of the few UK retailers to have been selling on the web for over ten years. He has experience across all aspects of e-commerce, as well as retail, direct mail, web kiosks and mobile.

We talked to Martin about the opportunities for retailers in the multi-channel arena, as well as challenges such as integration and conversion tracking.

I speak to lots of fashion retailers and find that many remain unconvinced that there is a robust case to invest in a transactional website for their business.

I realise this is an anathema to E-consultancy regulars, but the fact is that, if a well-established offline retailer looks at a potential e-commerce channel as a standalone business, the case can look less than compelling.