Mediarun Search Marketing News
Ding Dong merrily online
High street stores, battered and beleaguered by an economic climate as cold as December itself, have been hit by another whammy in the run-up to Christmas. Bargain hunters, anxious to bring down the cost of the festive season, are staying at home and logging on to buy their Yuletide gifts. The soaring trade on the Internet is now starting to have a major impact on stores that do not have an online presence, but rely on real-time shoppers coming through their doors.
The demise of one of the high street’s best known names last month with the collapse of Woolworths proves just how hard things are for the high street shops. Nearly all stores are reporting downturns in trade, but despite this online spending has surged by 16% in November, compared with the same period in 2007, according to the IMRG Capgeminie-retail sales index. Novembers figures were also 26% up on October’s numbers, which is when the banking crisis really started to knock consumer confidence.
IMRG says that the sharp rise in Internet sales has been driven by ‘e-tailers’ (online retail sellers) matching the desperate discounting of high street retailers. The advantage e-tailers have is that they have no overheads to consider (namely real shopfronts) and can therefore be far more flexible in their pricing, offering better prices initially and real bargains when needed. This has been compounded by the growing trend of shoppers to do a price-comparison check online before hitting the high streets. Often that comparison turns up an e-tailer as the cheapest alternative and voila – a trip to the high street is saved and the consumer clicks and buys from the comfort of their own home.
The only way that high street shops have any chance of fighting back is by adopting a high profile online presence and through aggressive marketing campaigns, reminding previously loyal customers that they are still in the game. If some of the established high street names are to avoid following Woolworth’s sad demise, then they must realise that Internet-savvy customers expect Internet-savvy e-tailers. Only then can they hope to claw back a bigger slice of the retail pie.
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