The ability to give their customers a seamless shopping experience and a speedy delivery time propelled high-street fashion retailer House of Fraser up the list of UK’s Best Multichannel Retailers.
Out of 187 retailers who are also selling online, House of Fraser was given the top spot by in the annual Multichannel Retail Report of eCommerce agency Ampersand, as they ranked the highest in terms of website navigation, mobile checkout, and click-and-collect service.
You’ve probably noticed that those criteria boil down to satisfying a customer, which House of Fraser obviously succeeded at.
By creating a responsive website design a couple of years back, they were able to address their customers’ growing demand for mobile shopping.
As the years went by, they continued to innovate and evolve to stay relevant in the retail industry and, most importantly, in the digital world.
Once again, we’ve seen how a customer’s experience can catapult a business to success; make life easier for them and everything else follows.
Other retailers that also made it to the Multichannel Retail Report’s top 10 but fell behind House of Fraser are Schuh, Argos, B&Q, Screwfix, Karen Millen, Marks & Spencer, Superdry, Coast and Warehouse.
What they were short on
Responding quickly to the needs of your customers helps you overtake your competitors but isn’t enough to win the race.
Aside from listening, it’s crucial for you to stay up to date with the latest apps and devices that influence a customer’s shopping behaviour.
It cannot be denied that majority of online shoppers these days prefer to make purchases with their mobile phones or tablets than with their PCs.
More importantly, they switch between devices while purchasing, so it pays to have a persistent shopping cart on your website.
Unfortunately, the Multichannel Retail Report reveals that 22% of online retailers still do not offer this feature which allows a customer to put items in their cart on a specific device-say, a mobile phone-and access it on a different device afterwards.
And despite the huge following of social media sites, the report says only 11% of retailers allow customers to register or log in to their websites from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Although many retailers are still lagging behind the likes of House of Fraser in terms of providing basic multichannel services, it’s not too late for them to start taking baby steps than not taking any step at all.
Take it from Darryl Adie, Managing Director at Ampersand, who said:
“Small, incremental changes can be truly impactful if your decisions are data-driven and deliberate.”
As the leading multichannel retailer for now, House of Fraser serves as a benchmark against which high-street and online retailers will be ranked in the future.
Are you up for the challenge?
