Report: Social Business | E-Commerce and the Digital Dynasty

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The Ahain Group has researched and explored the e-commerce landscape for retailers, analysing the trends from mobile commerce to augmented reality and click & collect.

43% of Irish consumers are saying they have made an online purchase within the previous 12 months. This represents an increase from 36% in 2010. The use of e-commerce for purchases has grown from 44% in 2010 to 49% in 2011. While in the UK, online sales recorded a 17% jump from July 2011 to August 2011. For the year, that’s £6.5 billion spent online with each person spending an average of £128. Total growth in 2012 is approximately 13%.

Globally, online purchases vary by location:

- In Ireland, 34% of consumers are turning to the Internet to book holidays or business travel
- 74% of UK consumers use the Internet for household grocery shopping activity
- Online U.S. broadband users spend an average of US$12.5 on music

Moving on-line to ‘e-commerce’ is very attractive to the retail sector especially, allowing vendors to sell to the global market. However, setting up an e-commerce store-front requires much more than pretty web pages to greet prospective buyers.

Turning ‘lookers into bookers’ requires:

- An in-depth understanding of target customer needs
- Competitive analysis to enable formulation of a competitive advantage strategy
- Optimisation of the online store for searches
- Development of all traffic streams to entice people to the trading platform
- Research and continued optimisation of all transaction flows
- A listening post to monitor public perception, awareness and sentiment

Big name brands like Burberry, Next, Amazon and John Lewis use their status to optimum advantage in the online environment. With substantial financial budgets, these brands could dominate. However, the ease of entry, low maintenance costs and the ability to reach a wide (global) audience without huge investment, afforded by the Internet, level the playing field somewhat.

This report includes:

- Insights into how consumers shop online - what they buy, why they buy
- Four case studies on the ‘masters’ of e-commerce - Amazon, Burberry, Littlewoods Ireland and John Lewis
- Factors contributing to the creation of a successful e-commerce store
- A deep analysis with innovation examples on mobile marketing campaigns and mobile commerce

This report seeks to analyse some key insights into e-commerce practice, to provide case studies of some of the leading e-commerce websites and to uncover ways that Social Business empowers e-commerce strategies by addressing areas where retailers can evolve within the digital dynasty.

Christina Giliberti, Associate at The Ahain Group and report co-author, said “The era of digital in retail has exploded globally. Fuelled by technological advancements such as augmented reality, wireless and mobile, the direction of e-commerce is very much of the flexible, multi-platform variety. It’s an exciting time for retailers to utilise this technology and provide a customer-centric experience in-line with the trends of ‘explore, interact, socialise, blend, mobile and integrate”.

For more information, contact The Ahain Group:

Email: [email protected]

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