Lehane Kellett, Technology Director at PMC talks about customer data and how it relates to the modern world of multi-channel and omni-channel retail.

Getting the right technology in-store massively impacts the customer experience. That’s why we try to encourage retailers to ensure all their systems are up to scratch.

With M&S introducing wifi in-store so customers can scan QR codes, Morrison’s investing £100 million into convenience stores as well as web development, and O2 working on its in-store proposition, it’s clear that the physical store experience is still alive. That means getting technology in-stores right first time really does matter.

Whilst we are firm believers that all online elements need to be tried and tested, we worry that if too much focus is put online retailers could forget about their in-store systems. To meet the demands of the customer-centric retail model that needs to be followed, retailers need to test their store-systems and ensure they are the just as right for them as their websites. Can your EPOS system handle the amount of transactions going through? How long do transactions take? Do systems buckle under pressure? Could performance be improved?

If you can’t answer those questions and you need any advice regarding testing services or system selection then please get in touch. At a time when customer service matters more than it ever has it’s important to get every aspect of the in-store experience running as it should be – that means getting the right technology working as well as the right staff.

In our latest newsletter we looked at what retailers can learn from the survivors of the British High Street. It’s no surprise that maximising the customer experience was one of the key differentiators when looking at the winners and losers, but what we didn’t mention was how important the customer is in driving the changes behind the successes.

Customers could be the biggest asset retailers have when it comes to driving new business strategies and implementing new technologies. As discussed at this week’s Retail Business Technology Expo the customer is more empowered than ever. The new delivery proposition from ASOS which allows people to order their goods online but to collect from a store is the perfect example. The concept came about because consumers disliked the thought of packages being left at their doorsteps when they weren’t home. By getting to know more about their online customers ASOS have eliminated one of the pet hates online shoppers moan about, and come up with a concept that also gives the store a purpose in their online model. As a result they have integrated online and offline channels in a new way, and provided their customers with a positive new experience.

Buyer behaviour dictates how store and web platforms perform and how these channels should be integrated. A lesson to retailers here: Look at your customers likes and dislikes, and see if you can use them to drive the business changes and innovations you need. If you have any examples of consumer driven innovations please share them with us.

Since writing our article Social Media, Smart Phones and an Anti-social Society a number of retailers including Gap and GameStop have taken down their Facebook stores. It would seem the ‘F-commerce or S-commerce retail revolution’ that we heard of throughout 2011 hasn’t really peaked as it was predicted to.

There’s no denying social networks are a great branding tool with the ability to build strong consumer engagement, but should their retail purpose and presence stop there? Essentially, wouldn’t selling via the social network site Facebook just be competition for the website? When it comes to purchasing what can social media add to the online shopping experience not supplied by the retail website? Some may argue websites and social networks serve different purposes and merging them could result in murkiness.

If the new Facebook timeline is rolled out to brand pages retailers will have an even stronger customer engagement tool. The retailer could then invest in an app for Facebook and instead of just ‘liking’ a retailer consumers will have the power to share much more detail about how they are interacting with a retail brand.

In terms of consumer data, engagement and relationship building social networks are a goldmine for retailers. Alike, for the consumer social networks make it easier to share information about a product or vendor, but when it comes down to the actual purchase is F-commerce failing?

Please share your thoughts and opinions on the future of social media and retail.

We’ve always said website usability has a massive impact on end user satisfaction, which ultimately impacts brand perception.

This week www.internetretailing.net support the importance of clear navigation on retail websites, reporting on a study which found “clear navigation boosts consumers’ positive feelings towards the UK’s general retail brands.” The study conducted looked at the experiences of more than 1,400 web users on sites including Argos, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Littlewoods, M&S and Tesco Direct.

In a number of cases users feelings towards brands changed drastically before and after using the website, proving exactly why it’s important to conduct a usability study on your website. The easier it was to navigate around the site the better the brand was scored, and the harder the navigation the more negative brand perception became.

We believe there is no better way of seeing your site than through the eyes of your customers, and no better way to understand their experience until you get them to trial it.  Over the last couple of years we’ve worked with a number of retailers to help improve the usability of their websites by doing just that http://www.pmcretail.com/case-studies/case-study2.html. If you want to see your website through the eyes of your customers then get in touch with us today. More information about usability testing we provide can be found here. http://www.pmcretail.com/usability-testing.html

Further £5,000 donation to help national charity for adoptive parents

As part of its ongoing commitment to support Adoption UK, PMC has announced a further donation of £5,000 to help the charity with the continued development of its Online Community web site.

Paul Mason, CEO, PMC explains his commitment to Adoption UK: “Too often, corporate sponsorship is directed at the most newsworthy rather than the most worthy. PMC remains committed to helping Adoption UK with both financial and other support. I consider supporting an organisation that helps make adoptions work is one of the most important sponsorship commitments PMC could make. As an adoptive parent myself, I know that Adoption UK makes a real difference”

Adoption UK, which celebrates its 40^th anniversary this year, is a national charity run by and for adoptive parents. The charity’s aim is to provide and support a self-help network for adoptive parents to explore the unique social, emotional and developmental needs of adopted children and young people and their families.

Its stated goal is: ‘To make adoptions work and promote loving and supportive relationships between children and their adoptive families.’ They provide independent support, information and advice on good practice to all concerned with adoption. In particular, Adoption UK offers a wealth of relevant experience from generations of adoptive families to prospective and established adopters and to all those who work with them.

Mason continues: “I find it incredible that one of our greatest assets – our children – can often be badly treated. The people at Adoption UK confirm that around 70% of children adopted from the care system come from an abusive or neglectful background. All children have physical and emotional needs, and for many adopted children these needs were not met. This unimaginable start to life means that anything we can do to help them is vital.”

Jonathan Pearce, director, Adoption UK states: “PMC has supported Adoption UK through an ongoing programme of much-appreciated donations and support. PMC’s employees have taken part in a wide variety of fund raising activities on behalf of Adoption UK, ranging from sponsored runs and mountain climbs to sky diving. We are once again indebted to PMC for this latest donation and look forward to continuing our association with them.”

Mason closes: “Everyone at PMC knows that we can make a significant difference through our support of Adoption UK. The various challenges we have met in raising money has both challenged and motivated our team. We look forward to more activities and to continuing our support for Adoption UK and helping them with the work they do to support adoptive families.”

Summer Holiday specials have come and gone, the ‘Back-to-School’ rush is subsiding and another Christmas is just around the corner. For many retailers it’s a crucial peak retail period but are you ready? And that doesn’t mean have you planned the promotions or scheduled the advertising. It means are your systems up to scratch?

To mitigate a poor peak sales period, look ahead. Ensure you have taken care of anything that could get in the way of successful trading. Protect your systems for peak and work in advance – a few weeks ahead of your crucial sales period is not enough – it takes longer to ensure success.

Retailers know their systems must be in the right condition for peak. Unfortunately, many shed core staff and relaxed housekeeping regimes during tough times. That makes it hard to carry out detailed system checks with limited fixed resources but it’s downright dangerous to hope your systems cope with demand. Systems issues during a peak period cause problems. And your systems need not crash, long queues, no stock and poor delivery will do as much damage.

Hoping for the best is not a solution

So what should you do? If you’ve thought about the issue, that’s good. If you’ve thought about it and decided on a plan, that’s better. However, if you’ve chosen to ignore the issue or hope your system hangs together and do nothing – ‘good luck’ – you’ll need it. This is not just about keeping systems healthy, it’s about ensuring they can cope with all the issues of high-peak workload such as capacity, performance, throughput, resources, staff and stock.

Christmas 2010 was fine for some retailers, for others it was an abject disaster. The weather didn’t help and neither did poor consumer confidence. That confidence has remained pretty low throughout 2011 and little looks to change in the run up to Christmas – and given the vagaries of the British weather this winter could easily be another tough one. So ‘planning for peak’ in Christmas 2011 remains crucial. Some retailers have departments that make the major part of their profit during the Christmas peak – perfume and toiletries sales are a prime example. For others there are numerous peaks. For some the Christmas peak defines the whole year.

Don’t sit and think – plan and take action now

If you seriously want to protect your systems for peak then you need to plan for action and take it in advance to give you sufficient time to cover all the elements – pre-peak performance analysis, remedial work, testing the remedy, deployment the remedy, and then going back to make sure it functions. That takes time.

It’s important for you to know or predict peak volume:

>If you know it, have you ever achieved such volumes before?

>If you haven’t, are you confident you can drive sales volumes through successfully?

>How have you decided to test your systems and when?

Ask searching questions:

>Are you maintaining basic housekeeping or have you ignored it?

>If you have capacity problems, do you have the capability to resolve them?

>Will your processing windows cope with end-of-day, stock levels and volume increases?

>Do you have space on your overnight processing?

>Are there processes you regularly undertake that you could stop during peak?

It’s also important to review your business continuity plan. Do you have contingency plans in place? Not just a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan, but a plan that ensures you have contingency. Have you taken the obvious actions such as rearranged Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with your service providers and internal teams?

The reasons for this self-interrogation are easy to understand – too many retailers are ‘squeaking by’ with the capacity they have and hoping it will cope with peak. Are you one of them?

Implement an action plan

Taking this approach doesn’t mean ‘plan, action and hang the expense’. If you’re driving people to your store and web site then ensure your system is not the inhibitor that prevents customers from buying. If you think peak volume will be 30% more than normal day-to-day trading check your systems can cope with the extra load – and consider some contingency. If you believe a full test is impossible then work out where the major impact will fall.

Action plans range from the ideal full-scale test to identifying what could impact performance and carry out health checks accordingly. Whatever financial or resource capacity constrains your action plan – do something. Doing nothing is a career limiting option. The alternative is easy, take the “I don’t want a job any more” option and cross your fingers.

Some retailers carry out an annual performance check ahead of peak. They ‘thrash’ their system to ensure it will cope. Not everyone can do that. However it’s vital to do what you can do, and do it now. This will give you time to carry out remedial action before you run out of time. Whenever your peak is due to hit you need to plan performance improvements right now, so what are you waiting for Christmas?

In our latest video blog, Lehane Kellett – Technology Director of PMC looks at cloud computing/SaaS, and what retailers need to consider regarding their data in adopting cloud computing technology.

Huw Thomas, Managing Director at PMC asks what does the future hold for M-Commerce?

The latest Martec International annual IT in retail report suggests that the top 100 UK retailers investment in e-commerce and m-commerce has grown from 17% to 23% in 2011, overtaking spending on store systems. The report also suggests that 16% of the retailers already have an m-commerce platform and a further 12% are planning to adopt m-commerce in the near future.

You also don’t have to go far to find survey after survey showing the growth in m-commerce use by consumers. A recent survey by ComScore shows that 13.5 million consumers in the 5 largest European markets accessed retail sites via mobile phones in the 3 months to May 2011. Of these 5 countries, the UK saw the biggest growth – a 163% increase versus the same period last year.

So for m-commerce the signs are encouraging, but for retailers a number of challenges and issues are also brought to life. So what does the future hold and what should retailers do?

The technology is heading in different directions – mobile optimised sites, smartphone apps, loyalty, location based services, QR codes, contactless/payment. Not many (if any) of these areas are fully evolved, and for retailers the key question has to be which of these services will my customers engage with (quickly) that will provide a meaningful short term ROI?

Not all services will be relevant for all retailers, and understanding your consumers and how they shop is key. Introducing new technology is great if your consumers would use it – it’s not great to do it just because other retailers/competitors are. It’s worth remembering that the demographics of smartphone and mobile users is diverse – there are a large number of consumers that took a long time to adopt and then master texting, so how long will it take before using a phone as a mobile scanner is the norm?

Concerns about data security and privacy need to be addressed to improve consumer confidence. Where a bricks and mortar transaction feels tangible and safe, with a direct link between purchase and receipt of product, consumers can lack that sense of trust and security with mobile transactions. In addition, location based services can leave consumers feeling like they’re a real life character in Orwell’s 1984, and recent media reports about the security of consumer data, create anxiety and uncertainty for many consumers. For consumers to look at their mobile device as a genuine channel, and eventually an m-wallet, retailers, regulators and the telecoms industry all need to play a bigger part in driving consumer confidence.

In summary, the growth of m-commerce is undeniable, but for retail a cautionary approach that involves understanding your customers and backing the right proven approach that fits with how you can drive your customers shopping trends, is the best approach to take. That means engaging seriously with your customers to promote the mobile developments you believe will work for your brand and reassuring yourself that there will be a big enough take up across your demographic group. This might take a bit longer, but at least you might back the right horse in the long run, and not risk damaging your brand through a poor customer experience in the short term.

It’s been a long but eventful month in retail. It felt like every other story hitting the press has focused on another retailer in crisis, consolidating its estate or going into administration. Habitat, Jane Norman and TJ Hughes have all collapsed, whilst other retailers including Thorntons and Carpetright have announced a programme of store closures.

The latest statistics suggest that 14% of the high street is now standing empty, and retail sales fell 1.4% in May.

So is this the full picture? Should retail just lick its wounds and accept defeat? What does the economic outlook mean for the future of the high street?

The UK press is at its happiest when there’s a crisis story, especially if there is a human interest angle, and every struggling retailer feeds their craving to heighten the concerns of employees affected.
But there needs to be balance. There are many sectors in retail, many individual companies and many innovators riding the crest of a wave and bucking the broader economic trends. You have to read the financial or trade press to hear about the good news; this doesn’t get the same amount of attention as the sensationalism of the bad. It’s about time the press took more responsibility for promoting a more positive view of the long term economic situation as I am convinced they are partly responsible for the retail trading conditions.

So what about the high street? The pessimism that surrounds the current economic picture seems to assume that the death of the high street is inevitable. But is it? Retail is one of the most innovative sectors in the world, with a proven ability to reinvent itself.

So where are the government in all of this? Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The High Street should be at the very heart of every community, bringing people together, providing essential services and creating jobs and investment; so it is vital that we do all that we can to ensure they thrive”. Fine words, but backed up by bringing in a self styled TV guru to carry out a review in order to halt the decline of the high street in England. Hardly the life line we were hoping for…

The future of the high street is important. Retail remains the UK’s largest private sector employer providing work for 1 in 10 of the working population. It also provides a high percentage of flexible working with nearly half of the jobs being part-time. For communities the high street still remains the life blood of their towns.

We all need to take responsibility to nurture and support the high street. Hopefully nobody wants to see our high streets turned into ghost towns or our shops fronts converted to trendy flats.