Clicks versus bricks the battle for market share

 

Amazon predicted to be 9^th biggest retailer in the world by 2018 has no stores.

 

In the UK the impact of Amazon’s business model on leading High St retailers has been devastating. Groups such as Comet has disappeared and HMV have gone into administration.

 

Amazon now has just under 25% share of the UK entertainment industry. Forbes recently listed Amazon at number 33 in the world’s most valuable brands.

 

Amazon are focussed on playing the long game and one of the keys to their future strategy is the latest buzzword "personalisation".

 

This is the mechanism of presenting customers with tailored, relevant content as they shop and in doing so increase conversion and generate loyalty

 

Despite the increased usage of this technology, it is still relatively new to the market but will undoubtedly evolve to become a prime factor in driving the future of ecommerce.

 

More ecommerce companies are devoting increasing resources to develop personalisation software.

 

Several leading brands are assigning more internal resource to creating a truly personal customer experience by appointing teams of ‘personalisation experts’.

 

As with traditional retailers ecommerce companies are now placing greater emphasis on using real insight to make customers feel like valued individuals as they spend time shopping on line.

 

All of this blurs the traditional lines and retailers face a common problem delivering what the consumer demands efficiently and free of delivery charge at prices which reflect ever squeezed profit margins.