Gaps in the apps mean shops miss out on sales

UK shops in every industry are missing out on millions of pounds in additional sales because they don't have online services, or the ones they do have aren't good enough to close out sales, according to a new study. Deficit in sales growth by sector for poor customer experience online Deficit in sales growth, by sector, due …

[The Mole]

Would have been nice to know where out of thin air they pulled these numbers, from reading the article it's presumably just "site XYZ doesn't have feature ABC that is 1% of their earnings missed out on".

How do we know the figure isn't zero? <flawed logic>Clearly if no body had online grocery delivery then nobody would buy their groceries online and instead we'd get them from the shops, pretty much the same amount of money would be spent in either cases therefore they haven't missed out on any sales!</flawed logic>

[JasonW]

OK...

... I can buy into the fact that XYZ missed out on an online sale because their site/presence/system wasn't up to snuff, but the fact remains that there are a fixed(ish) number of consumers looking for a fixed(ish) number of items - so the only way XYZ is going to get increased share is by taking it off ABC (or cannibalising their own physical presence).

At the same time, I have walked out of more than one physical store without purchasing because the store staff/presence/system wasn't up to snuff.

[Da Weezil]

meh

"A fixed number of consumers"...... - many of whom have a frozen or even decreasing income in the face of rising prices. Jeeze what planet are these morons on? Out here in the REAL world, we are not all bankers with nice big bonus cheques. I used to laugh at managers who talked of year on year growth.. the marker is FINITE people... look it up!

I only shop online for certain things that I am prepared to wait for which doesnt cover all aspects of my spending. In term,s of grocery shopping, I prefer to pick my own stuff thank you, and look for bargains in the process.

On line has its place, but it is no replacement.

Another survey by people doing a "nothing" job producing little of value.

[Timjl]

I don't understand why anyone would ever go to a supermarket unless forced to. Horrible places. The saving in terms of time, effort and not having to go to a supermarket of online grocery shopping outweighs a marginal increase in cost.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am

"Out here in the REAL world, we are not all bankers with nice big bonus cheques."

See title.

[Buzzword]

Clothing retailer River Island impressed me recently. After finding a shirt I liked but which wasn't in stock in my size, they gave me a card with the stock reference number and pointed me to their website. A simple gesture, yet effective.

[Red Bren]

Delivery is the key

I've been known to do grocery shopping online when I need to buy heavy things in bulk. But most online shopping (and some offline shopping) infuriates me. It's the final link in the supply chain that's the problem - getting the goods to my door. Supermarkets will let me choose a convenient two-hour timeslot for my delivery. Most other retailers can barely estimate to the nearest day as to when I can expect to see the goods, let alone deliver when I'm likely to be at home, i.e. not between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday.

How difficult is it to plan a delivery route, load the van appropriately and tell customers when they can expect to see their goods?

[aBloke FromEarth]

Online shop creator...

...in "not enough companies have online shops" shocker.

[Maverick]

@ Timjl

mate

I enjoy many of your posts but the reality here is that on line ordering in the UK means you get only the oldest fresh stuff about to blow its sell by date

I got loads of 'free delivery' vouchers some years ago (my town was a 'test' location) - gave to my wife with our small baby but she got sick of the crap they delivered to us and got in her car to get better stuff

(FYI I got lots of vouchers as *I* wasn't using them - great IT system eh?)

PS now we use a great farm shop even closer, shame our supermarkets in the UK are so useless

[Richard Porter]

Platform compatibility

"By not giving customers the information they need on the platform of their choice, they are less likely to complete purchases,"

Very true. I have failed to complete purchases on a number of sites because of browser compatibility problems. They use flash or javascript. I use NetSurf by choice. Sometimes I get right to the end of a transaction and when I try to use my BoA MasterCard I get thrown onto a verification site which doesn't work, so I have to backtrack. Then BoA phones me up because they suspect some fraudulent activity. It's not difficult to design web sites that work with any browser, even if it means doing a bit more of the processing on the server.

They sometimes send me email messages with a cop-out text/plain part that tells me nothing, and of course there's a reply address that isn't monitored so you have no way of contacting them except by struggling through their incompatible web sites. If there's a problem with the web site you can't tell them because there's a problem with the web site. Catch 22.

[Anonymous Coward]

"why would anyone ever go to a supermarket "

"I don't understand why anyone would ever go to a supermarket unless forced to."

Next time you're in the North (of England, ie Lancashire, bits of Yorkshire and Cheshire), pay a visit to a Booth's supermarket.

It's a bit like a cross between John Lewis and a 12 hour a day 6 days a week farmers market.

Really, you have to see them (and preferably eat from them) to believe.

In the potato season they were selling potatoes picked a few hours previously on local farms. Local bakers provide the baked goods. And so on.

Sadly they're up North and I'm not, but I make sure I pay a visit when I'm in the area.

They don't need an online service.