Dart’s data--the Olympics issue

In the July issue of Direct Commerce, which hit desks last week, our cover story focused on what online retailers are doing in order to profit from a summer of sport including the Olympics, this week’s edition of Dart’s Data takes a look at some recent reports that cover the effects of this summer’s Olympics on merchants.

EPoS and ecommerce services provider Cybertill surveyed around 600 of its customers nationwide, and discovered that more than half (54 percent) said the Olympics would have little or no effect on their business. Just 19 percent said the Games would increase sales, of which most were based in the London area or sold sporting goods.

In contrast, however, a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) concluded that the Olympics could provide a much-needed boost to employer confidence as a quarter of UK bosses say they think the games will be good for their businesses with only four percent predicting a negative impact on their bottom line. What’s more 63 percent said they planned to increase the number of permanent employees over the next three months.

But Conlumino’s Illuminating Retail study gives food for thought with the suggestion that much of the potential benefits and sales uplift attributed to the Olympics could be offset by higher costs due to retailers having to fund more staff, a greater number of deliveries and, potentially, longer working hours during the period of the Games.

Clearly, the Olympics are expected to deliver some benefits but the idea that the Olympics will be a saviour to the retail sector and reverse its fortunes are quite wide of the mark.--JD

Dart’s data: the Smart TV issue

Regular readers will be familiar with our free newsletter DC’s TV Shopping Week, which focuses on the world of online video, connected TVs and DRTV.

This week’s Dart’s Data also pays tribute to the discipline of TV, taking a look at recent reports examining the impact of smart TVs on retailers in the future.

According to an eBay-commissioned study carried out by Conlumino, one in four (25 percent) of people will regularly use interactive TV to shop by the end of 2014, generating direct sales worth an estimated £750 million. Smart devices also ranked as one of the top five predicted influential technologies for retail, alongside augmented reality, smart devices and image recognition.

WorldPay's recently launched its Global Online Shopper Report, a study of 19,000 e-shoppers globally, supports these findings, noting that 5 percent of global shoppers have already purchased online using a next generation interactive TV. The study found that 21 percent of respondents own an internet-ready TV and of those who do, 24 percent have used it to purchase goods and services. The highest users were e-shoppers in India (63 percent), Brazil (39 percent) and China (33 percent). The study also found that smart-device usage is particularly high among “heavy spenders”--those who have spent 30 percent of their disposable income online in the past year. Globally, 55 percent of heavy spenders have used a smartphone and 67 percent a tablet in the last three months to buy online.

Only one third (37 percent) of Britons that are planning to buy a Smart TV said that connecting to the internet through it was a factor in buying one, according to a YouGov survey of the nation’s TV habits. The most common reason for intending to buy a Smart TV is to just have a more up-to-date TV set (50 percent), while the most important feature of Smart TVs amongst respondents who already own one is picture quality (96 percent of owners) followed by the size of the screen (93 percent), then sound quality (89 percent). Highlighting that more consumer education is needed in this area, only half (53 percent) of Smart TV owners correctly identified a Smart TV as one that directly connects to the internet without the need of another device; while one in four (25 percent) of Smart TV owners have never used it to connect to the internet.--JD

If you have a report, study or whitepaper then email jamesd@catalog-biz.com.

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Dart’s data--social media

You might talk the talk, but do you walk the walk? These two reports show that consumers want more interaction with brands via social media, but that businesses aren’t effectively measuring this engagement, potentially losing out on a very lucrative channel.

Global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget found that nearly half of UK consumers interact with brands on Facebook and nearly a quarter of those are more likely to make a purchase from that brand. Based on more than 1,400 consumer interviews and surveys, the report also shows that 7 percent of all UK consumers have followed a brand on Twitter, with 32 percent of those saying they are more likely to buy from the brand after following it on the social network.

Research by EPiServer, a multichannel digital marketing and ecommerce software specialist, revealed that only one in ten UK businesses effectively measure ROI of their social media outreach, despite more than half increasing their investment in social media over the past year. The survey, which asked 250 UK marketing decision makers, also highlighted that 17 percent of respondents said they are planning to set up more social media channels in the coming year, but only 22 percent of firms said they have a social media or community manager in place.

Send your report, study or whitepaper to jamesd@catalog-biz.com.

Dart’s data: the data security issue

This week’s edition takes a look at a study that highlights how half of companies could be open to data security breaches as well as a report that shows IT bosses in the retail sector are worried about the increase in consumerisation of information technology and how it will lead to greater business risks.

• The latest Adestra/Econsultancy’s Email Marketing Industry Census 2012 report highlights that only 56 percent of client-side respondents and 47 percent of supplier-side respondents say they (or their clients) have policies and processes in place to guard against data security breaches. This is the first time the report included responses to questions on data and worryingly found that 16 percent of companies didn’t even know whether data security measures were in place.  Only a quarter of companies are using authenticated login and/or IP restrictions to prevent breaches.

The research, conducted between January and February 2012 among 846 individuals, also reveals that 44 percent of respondents either had no data security policies and processes in place, or were not aware of any, while only 2 percent of respondents ranked data security as one of the three areas they need to focus on most in 2012.

• Results from a study by technology performance firm Compuware Corporation shows that 78 percent of retail sector chief information officers worry that, as consumerisation of IT gathers pace, it will lead to greater business risks. The study of 520 CIOs shows that models such as cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as well as trends like social media and m-commerce,  are driving unrealistic expectations around the role of IT in 74 percent of businesses across the retail sector.--JD

Dart’s data: the mobile issue

It’s commonly accepted that mobile is becoming an ever more popular shopping channel with consumers, so with this in mind this week’s Dart’s Data takes a look at some interesting reports showing that even though mobile is gaining traction with consumers, not all retailers are jumping on the m-commerce bandwagon.

• A report by the MoBank Group, a specialist in creating systems for mobile transactions, estimates that 80 percent of retailers currently are not supporting m-commerce despite 15 percent of all online traffic coming through the mobile channel. That equates to closing your website for one day a week, suggesting that approximately £10 billion of commerce is being lost each year.
  
• A report by Juniper Research reveals that the total value of mobile coupons will exceed $43 billion globally by 2016 as coupons are increasingly delivered by mobile apps, an eightfold increase from $5.4 billion in value used in 2011.
  
• A study by shopping website VoucherCodes.co.uk highlights that 60 percent of consumers would avoid using their mobile as a payment tool, while 17 percent stated they would be interested but would worry about the technology working. The most common reason for avoiding mobile payments was safety (36 percent). Consumers said that they would trust Visa (30 percent), PayPal (20 percent) and MasterCard (18 percent) the most when it comes to handling mobile payments, whereas Apple (6 percent) and Google (4 percent) were at the other end of the scale.
  --JD

Dart’s data--from Facebook timeline to cart abandonment

In light of the news that Facebook timeline becomes mandatory today for all Facebook accounts, I’ve found some recent stats that focus on this area.  A study by social media marketing platform Vitrue found that 52 percent of brands saw a reduction in engagement rate when they made the shift to Facebook timeline.
However, through implementing best practices for brand pages, such as sharable content, better visuals and prioritising timeline milestones, 27 percent of brands saw an engagement rate increase of more than 20 percent. Some brands have seen as much as a 190 percent lift in engagement rate per fan.

Another report that crossed my desk in recent days is research conducted by the International Fraud Prevention Research Centre for Experian, which estimates that £1.02 billion worth of online shopping transactions were abandoned last year by UK consumers frustrated by old and inefficient identity measures. One in five of these abandoned transactions were not taken elsewhere as individuals cancelled their shopping attempt altogether, resulting in £214 million worth of net lost revenue for UK retailers. The study also revealed that 44 percent of UK shoppers have abandoned at least one online shopping transaction in the last year after becoming frustrated with the length and complexity of older forms of identity verification.--JD

Send your report, study or whitepaper to jamesd@catalog-biz.com.

Dart's data--the online issue

Last week we looked at recent stats from the ecommerce sector. This week we continue the ecommerce theme and examine the latest online shopping trends as well as some interesting facts about customer reviews.

• The WorldPay eCommerce Basket survey shows that UK online shoppers spent more than £3,370 on ecommerce websites in the last year. Forty percent of shoppers bought online at least four times a month and nearly 60 percent shopped up to three times a month, with 10 percent saying that in an average month they purchased products online 10 or more times. The survey, which polled 2,000 online shoppers in the UK, found that shoes were the most popular fashion and clothing item to be bought online. The most expensive fashion and clothing item bought were handbags, with women spending an average of £187 per order.

The WorldPay study also highlights that men are more prolific online shoppers, spending an average of £3,495 a year compared to women who spent £3,120 a year. Men spent £145 more a year on electronics, £150 more on lifestyle and entertainment products and £235 more on travel. Conversely, women spent more on fashion and clothing with an average of £315 compared to £188 by men.

• A recent study by Feefo, the online feedback forum, revealed that women are the fairer sex when it comes to online reviews with women providing more constructive criticism, but men being twice as likely to write a review. In the research, which collected more than four million responses for the likes of The White Company, Crew Clothing and Not On The High Street, also shows that women are twice as likely to spend time writing reviews at work, with men preferring to use a home computer. The survey also shows that young men in the 18-34 age bracket and men aged 55 and older were the most common reviewers, while women aged between 35 and 54 were the most likely to be engaged in a review.--JD

If you have a report, study or whitepaper send it to jamesd@catalog-biz.com.

Dart’s data--the multichannel shopper

New technologies are increasingly important for the multichannel consumers. In a report by Shoppercentric, 87 percent of shoppers said they used bricks and mortar shops as part of their purchase journey, with 23 percent of shoppers using catalogues, 13 percent using smartphones, 7 percent tablets and two percent shopping through internet TV in the past month (January/February). The Shopping in a Multichannel World study also discovered that nine percent of respondents have used a retailer app, with 5 percent using a brand app, while seven percent used social media during a purchase journey.

Stores are the most trusted channel for getting expert advice (68 percent), followed by brand websites (52 percent). While brand websites (40 percent) and comparison websites (39 percent) scored the most for providing trustworthy information, with the least trusted route being social media (17 percent). Social media’s strength is in finding exclusive deals, with half of respondents citing social media as the best sources.

The Shoppercentric report, which sought to uncover what consumers really use to browse, research, consider or purchase from, and whether any age or gender distinctions might exist found that 34 to 45-year-olds are the keenest online shoppers, with 55 percent saying they preferred shopping online to visiting shops.--JD

Dart’s data--weekly stats roundup

As the upcoming issue of Direct Commerce magazine looks at the developments in m-commerce, the first Dart’s data--weekly stats roundup focuses on some of the latest published m-commerce and social media research studies, just to give you a little taster of what to expect.

• Retailers need to work harder to improve their mobile offering according to strategic information management company Stibo Systems. In its UK Online Shopping Trends 2011 whitepaper, only 27 percent of consumers said they were satisfied with their mobile retail experience. Not surprising when you consider that in separate research, Stibo discovered that 58 percent of retailers didn’t have the budget to make rich-media improvements to their site and 37 percent suffered due to legacy technology systems.  On the bright side, the study of executives at 100 top UK retail organisations revealed that around half (48 percent) of retailers are planning to enhance their mobile offering by the end of 2012; of those, 53 percent are looking to optimise their  websites for mobile, with 44 percent planning to facilitate mobile transactions.
  
• Another survey, this time by Strongmail, notes that more than a third of businesses plan to increase their investment in mobile marketing programmes such as mobile apps (29 percent) and SMS alerts (20 percent). But when it comes to email, integrating social media is more important. It found that more than two-thirds of businesses plan to integrate social media and email in 2012, versus 44 percent integrating mobile and email.
  
• By failing to maximise the potential from mobile, marketers are missing a trick. According to a YouGov survey commissioned by mobile business and marketing services firm 2ergo, 56 percent of consumers would use a personalised loyalty scheme on their mobile and just over a fifth (21 percent) state they would spend more if a brand had a proactive scheme which provided relevant and timely offers. And yet, 2ergo found that just 6 percent of high street retailers currently have a mobile-based loyalty scheme.

The March issue will be published on 8th March—to subscribe and receive your copy, click here.

Send your report, study or whitepaper to jamesd@catalog-biz.com.

What we learned from 58 bank holiday weekend emails

If, like me, you spent the bank holiday weekend fighting off a nasty bout of flu, you will have had time to read your emails instead of having fun and enjoying the, erm, “Great British Summer”. You will have also noticed several marketers using the bank holiday as a hook for their special offers last week. Like any event or special date in the calendar, the bank holiday weekend makes for excellent email fodder, so in my paracetamol-induced haze I had the idea of saving all my emails for analysis.

I took a random sample of 58 emails I received between Friday, 27th May and Monday, 30th May. Of the 58 emails I tallied, at least four merchants sent me more than one email during the course of the long weekend. So what did they have to tell me that was so important they needed to contact me twice? Pet Supermarket sent me a food-storage themed email on Sunday with no mention of the bank holiday. The following day it emailed to let me know that I had just 48 hours to get 10 percent off my order. The subject line worked to instil a sense of urgency, but I was much less excited when I learned I needed to spend £79 to qualify for the discount.

Another retailer, equestrian supplies specialist Derby House, emailed me on Friday announcing “75% OFF Bank Holiday Outlet Clearance*”. Asterisks in subject lines are never a good thing and should be avoided in my opinion. I looked up the footnote, which referred to 183 words of terms and conditions. Sure, they needed to be there, but perhaps the subject line wasn’t the ideal place to point them out. On Monday, the email from Derby House was titled “Hurry, these offers end midnight tomorrow!”—thankfully no asterisk this time.

Something for the weekend
Although Derby House mentioned the bank holiday in the subject line of one of its emails, it was in the minority of merchants that did so. Unexpectedly, more than four out of five emails (81 percent) did not include a reference to the bank holiday in the subject line. Those that did included apparel cataloguer Tulchan: “Bank Holiday Bonanza from Tulchan” and homewares cataloguer/retailer Cologne & Cotton: “A Great Bank Holiday Offer From Cologne and Cotton”. I was also impressed by Cologne & Cotton’s efforts to link email with its other channels. It featured a printable coupon that customers can use in-store to redeem 15 percent off selected lines.

Eight of the 58 emails, or 14 percent, did not mention the bank holiday in the subject line but did include it in the body of the email. Hush and Frugi definitely missed a trick here. Let’s start with apparel retailer Hush’s subject line: “Miri - The Grocer's Son, last chance to win Lazy Linen bundles from The Sleep Room, harem trousers update etc”. Okay, it gets a thumbs up for its attempt at personalisation, but “etc”? And where’s Hush’s product in this email, third in line with a “harem trousers update”—not even a special offer, but a stock update. I know Hush is known for its soft-sell approach, but burying a free delivery promotion at the bottom of the email just doesn’t make sense to me. Especially considering customers have to spend £75 to qualify for the offer.

Childrenswear brand Frugi sent an email titled “Something special to celebrate our 7th birthday”. The email then went on to offer free delivery and a 3-for-2 deal, as well as a Facebook competition to win a “Frugi birthday present”. I can’t help but think that open rates would have improved if Frugi had simply added “Free UK delivery” or “Win Frugi goodies” to the subject line.

Speaking of Facebook, my sample showed that 78 percent of emails featured some sort of social-bookmarking link. When we ran a similar study in 2009, only 17 percent included a link to the company’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, or other third-party social-media site. While this is a huge improvement, there’s still more to be done. One in every five emails is missing out on the opportunity social networking presents to get closer to its audience.

Another missed opportunity is personalisation, with 90 percent of the merchants in my sample failing to personalise any element of the email. Just six emails featured any sort of personalisation: Hush, Yours Clothing and Chemist Direct opted for including my name in the subject line. Gifts marketer Cox & Cox and apparel etailer Curvissa chose to address me by name in the body of the email. Fashion retailer New Look’s personalisation was evident in the preheader text: “Miri, if you can't view our e-mail, click here”.

My favourite use of preheader text came courtesy of cosmetics marketer Feelunique. The preheader, also known “snippet text” appears in the inbox of some email clients along with the subject line. Often only used to remind readers they can view the email in their web browsers, preheaders have the potential to work much harder for the brand, something Feelunique clearly appreciates. Here’s how it maximised the chances of having its email opened: “It’s last of the long weekends & we’re giving you just the ticket to satisfy your beauty needs all weekend. Get a whopping £5 off any order when you spend only £45 or more – get summer sorted!” That’s everything a reader would need to help make the decision of whether to open the email or not. So much more effective than saying “Not displaying correctly, click here to view it in your browser”, don’t you agree?

The big deal
If 80 percent of emails were not promoting a bank holiday-related offer, they had to be promoting something else, right? Forty-five percent of subject lines made mention of a price-related offer, for example “25% off all clothing including online exclusives” at Tesco, and “This week’s top offers - up to 50% off!” at Debenhams. Twelve percent of emails chose to promote free delivery, or in apparel retailer Wallis’s case, a lower delivery charge of £1. A scant 5 percent offered a free gift, including cosmetics brand Clinique and mail order butcher Donald Russell: “New Butchers Specials - Get FREE burgers with orders over £80!”.

And finally, here’s one for the “Huh?” file. Toys and games etailer Smyths sent me an email tiled “Save €'s..Get Top Rated Games For Less”. The Galway-based retailer sent me its euro-priced email instead of the sterling email. Smyths needs to be more stringent with its segmentation. It knows I live in the UK—it even sent me a catalogue at Christmas—so why am I on the list for an Eire-only promotion?--MT

March Catalogue Log

At face value, March 2011 and March 2010 look almost identical in terms of catalogue volume. We received 140 catalogues last month, compared with 141 in March last year. There were familiar names too—we logged catalogues from Flowercard, Joe Browns, Kettlewell, and Tesco Direct in March 10 and March 11. But there were also names missing this year. For instance, we didn’t get a mailing from Bella di Notte, Cox & Cox, or Extremepie this March. Nevertheless, catalogues from Feather & Black, Garden Trading, and Shop Direct’s new isme title, brought March’s catalogue volume in line with last year. Evidently, marketers are being more careful with mailings and removing unprofitable names from their mailing files.

Digging a little deeper into our data, however, shows several differences. Although March 2011 was only marginally more promotional than last year—58.6 percent of catalogues featured some sort of offer on the cover, compared with 57.4 percent last year—we tracked a 29 percent increase in the number of catalogues promoting a sale or discount. Of the 140 catalogues we received in March, 41.4 percent, 58 catalogues, had a price-related offer on the cover. Among those offering knock-down prices were children’s furniture cataloguer Great Little Trading Co, apparel retailers Joules and Toast, and the new JD Williams brand Williams & Brown.

In March last year we noted a record number of catalogues offering free shipping—22 percent. That record has since been broken twice, and was almost matched this March, with one in five catalogues a conditional or unconditional p&p offer. Commonly this year, free shipping was combined with free returns as a further incentive to purchase. This was adopted by womenswear catalogues Penny Plain, Hush, and Brora, among others.

Free gifts was less popular than it was last March, and indeed the least popular it’s been in 2011 so far. The offer appeared on 15 catalogue covers this month, mostly used by business-to-business merchants and gardening catalogues.--MT

Is stat so?

We’ve just received the results from a survey carried out by feedback forum Feefo. Not surprising, its main findings say that consumers are less likely to trust an online company they have never heard of. It found that more than half of online shoppers are “more likely to buy from websites carrying independent product (53%) and service (51%) reviews from past customers”. Fair enough.

However, one of the findings struck me as erroneous: “Even when purchasing from legitimate websites, one in eight people (13%) has experienced problems ranging from goods being faulty or not turning up at all, to being unable to return items or get a refund.”

First, I don’t think that statistic should be used to demonise online shopping. When shopping in general, how many of us have taken something we bought on the high street back to the store because it was faulty? How many have had problems returning items in-store? Or, regardless of channel, have had a bad experience with a customer service rep?

Second, one in eight seems very low… I had to return a top recently because the seam was torn. A straw poll of my colleagues reveals a similar picture. We’ve all had to return or query an order at one point or another. And surely it depends on how frequently a consumer transacts online as to how likely he is to experience problems. I have been shopping online regularly for 10 years (first-ever purchase from Amazon, 1999), so I am much more “at risk” of encountering a problem than someone who makes one or two purchases a year.

So what is Feefo trying to say? If it’s saying that transacting online is comparatively safer or less hassle than shopping on the high street, I’ll buy into that. Otherwise, I am not quite sure how it wants me to read that…--MT

Yin, yang, and statistics

Some interesting stats from data specialist Abacus as to how cataloguers view their business going forward. Of the 48 members of the Abacus Alliance who responded to a survey in May and June, 75 percent felt that their economic prospects for the current season were the same or better than they had been a year ago. What's more, 48 percent said they were more optimistic about the next three months' trading than they had been, while only 8 percent were less optimistic.

So far, so good, right?

But when asked if the UK home shopping sector had experienced the worst of the recession, 53 percent said that they felt the worst was yet to come.

This could mean several things. One, that respondents think it will take more than three months to hit the economic nadir--they're cautiously optimistic about the next three months, but after that, watch out. Personally, I think this interpretation is suspect.

Two, that respondents think their own businesses are better positioned than most others to survive the impending doom. In other words, yes, the economy has yet to hit rock bottom, but we'll still manage to do okay. This seems more likely.

Three, that the wording of a survey question can make a huge difference to the response. When respondents were asked if they were "less or more optimistic about their company's business prospects" over the next three months, what were they meant to compare against? Less or more optimistic than they'd been a year ago? Six months ago? Less or more optimistic than the media? Than their doom-and-gloom in-laws?

Four, that it is possible to be optimistic and pessimistic simultaneously. Or to put it another way, ther's nowt as queer as folk.--SC