The Changing World of Multichannel Retail

It may just be the aftermath of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but all the talk seems to be about mobile commerce:

  • eBay/Paypal expecting to process $7bn worth of mobile transactions in 2012;
  • Facebook becoming involved in mobile payments;
  • UK retailers seeing mobile grow to over 5% of their digital revenue;
  • Our very own client Domino’s Pizza reporting over £10m in sales from iPhone alone.

Such enthusiasm is hardly surprising given the numbers involved. We are however even more excited about how it all fits in the wider picture of multichannel retail.

The Packaged Internet

We have entered the era of a “packaged internet” – one where apps, smart TVs, tablets, e-readers, gaming devices and other emerging platforms are eroding the dominance of the destination site. Indeed social networks have effectively created new channels within the open web itself.

For retailers, this rapid fragmentation of digital channels has  accelerated the need for re-defining their multichannel strategy. What should that strategy include?

1 – Go where the customer is. Brands must be prepared to address each of these individual channels in turn, taking their product to the consumer rather than a continued reliance on the user finding them. If they don’t then you can guarantee someone else’s brand will do.

2- All touch points must be considered as a whole. Customers expect the same experience as they flip between channels and devices. In the case of mobile alone there have been too many ’rush to market’ efforts that have left retailers with disconnected and under functioning apps. They will frustrate consumers whilst at the same time draining marketing budgets.

3 – Connect online and offline. 2012 is the year when smartphone owners, at least in the US, will go over 50% , and vitally 77% put their phone to use while shopping.  It is time for the ‘connected consumer’ - people using their devices to augment their shopping experience, from price comparison and suggestions to purchase validation through their social networks.  As a result we are at last developing a direct link between the online and offline worlds leading to a better understanding of the customer as a whole, enabling the retailer to enhance the in-store experience and ultimately increasing conversion rates.  The more the gap between digital channels and in-store understanding narrows, the bigger the opportunity for the retailer – especially as 90% of purchases are still made at bricks and mortar stores.

Make the most of mobile

In summary whilst all the talk currently is around mobile commerce, there is a bigger opportunity out there for those willing to encompass a broader approach to multichannel. Newcomers and established players alike should use the momentum behind mobile retail to develop a fuller more integrated multichannel strategy.

In particular:

  • Optimum solutions require better APIs – a thankless task in the short term but one that will nevertheless reward in the longer term, as new platforms emerge and commerce becomes more distributed;
  • Mobile sits nicely between off and on-line – it offers a great opportunity to create a more seamless experience for consumers and ensures in-store becomes a major part of the multichannel approach;
  • Don’t be afraid to fail. Trialling new devices or platforms might not bring the commercial results anticipated, but they deliver invaluable learnings for the future.

Future Platforms strongly believe that retailers and e-tailers alike should be planning to execute effectively across all channels, looking for ease and consistency as their customers switch from one to the other.

We have been applying this approach to Domino’s Pizza since 2006, working across their e-commerce site, social media, in-store kiosks and more recently mobile.

The results speak for themselves: online sales at £183.1m, over half of Domino’s overall sales and up 43% from the previous year, with 13% of digital sales coming from mobile and tablets alone.

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Domino’s Pizza launches Windows Phone 7 App with Vexed Digital

We are delighted to announce the Windows Phone 7 app we produced for Domino’s Pizza UK & Ireland, as a new addition to the leading pizza delivery company’s impressive array of mobile platforms for ordering.  The release marks the 7th channel for mobile sales to complement Domino’s e-commerce website, as well as the first under Domino’s new partnership with Vexed’s recently acquired mobile division Future Platforms,  confirming our commitment to multi-platform excellence.

The app is being released in time for the launch of the new Nokia Lumia 800 with a view to reaching a new mobile market. Domino’s Multi Media Manager Nick Dutch says, “Domino’s is committed not only to monitoring and responding to consumer trends and needs but also staying ahead of the game.  With WP7 we see a great opportunity to get into the hands of loyal Nokia fans, who will be upgrading as WP7 launches. This is a great way for us to meet them there!”

The app allows easy mobile ordering for Domino’s customers using an integrated 3D secure payment system.  The app’s design is streamlined, smooth and has an emphasis on ease of navigation, in keeping with the Domino’s ordering interface design and branding.  It uses your location to find your nearest store’s details and supplies information on meal deals, providing a sophisticated yet simple user experience for WP7 customers.

Mobile has proved a hugely successful avenue for Domino’s; their iPhone app generated over £10m in sales in 2011 alone.  Paul Francis, Head of Commercial Systems at Domino’s, says, “Our brand lends itself brilliantly to mobile retail. 13% of all digital sales come though a tablet or smartphone so we know that for many customers, mobile is the preferred way of ordering. We have ambitious plans for 2012 and I am delighted that we can offer this new app for the Windows Phone 7 platform.  We look forward to hearing what our customers think.”

Founder of Vexed Digital, Richard Davies, says “Vexed Digital and Future Platforms are looking forward to innovating further across all platforms, as well as continuing to work on Domino’s overall e-commerce strategy, emphasising a commitment to forward thinking multi-platform digital solutions. “

-Domino’s Windows Phone 7 app is available from Windows Phone Marketplace.

-For more information on this, or other Vexed Digital and Future Platforms work please contact Xanthe at xanthe@vexeddigital.com

-For more information on Domino’s Pizza, please contact Domino’s Press Office by emailing pr@dominos.co.uk

More About Domino’s Pizza:

Domino’s Pizza UK & IRL plc is the leading player in the fast-growing pizza delivery market and holds the exclusive master franchise to own, operate and franchise Domino’s Pizza stores in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The first UK store opened in Luton in 1985 and the first Irish store opened in 1991. In April 2011, the Group acquired a majority stake in the exclusive master franchise to own, operate and franchise Domino’s Pizza stores in Germany.

As at 25 September 2011, there were 702 stores in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Germany. Of these, 553 stores are in England, 47 are in Scotland, 28 are in Wales, 19 are in Northern Ireland, one is on the Isle of Man, one is a mobile unit, 49 are in the Republic of Ireland and four are in Germany.

Founded in 1960, Domino’s Pizza is one of the world’s leading pizza delivery brands. Through its primarily franchised system, Domino’s Pizza operates a global network of more than 9,350 Domino’s Pizza stores in 70 international markets. Domino’s Pizza has a singular focus – the home delivery of pizza, freshly made to order with high quality ingredients.

Customers in the UK can order online at www.dominos.co.uk and customers in the Republic of Ireland can order online at www.dominos.ie. In addition, mobile customers can order by downloading Domino’s free iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone 7 apps.

 

Future Platforms Announced as one of The World’s Best Mobile App Developers by Mobyaffiliates

We are delighted to announce that Future Platforms has been named in the top three in the independently curated 2012 list of the World’s Best Mobile App Developers.  Mobyaffiliates announced their shortlist of “the most renowned, and promising, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and HTML5 dedicated app development studios, worldwide” on Monday and we are privileged to be described as a “well established mobile development agency with a stellar client list and world class technical and design credentials”.

Thank you very much to Mobyaffiliates and @technokitten for their recognition.

 

 

Lastminute.com Windows Phone 7 App

On 16th March we launched a gorgeous new app for Lastminute.com, which offers smooth hotel booking on Windows Phone 7 devices.   Book at over 80,000 hotels in Europe and across the world on the app, including Top Secret deals that tell you your hotel’s location -yup you guessed it- at the last minute!

Windows Phone 7 is the fourth platform that we have worked in for Last Minute and has been designed to take advantage of Microsoft’s innovative interface.  Future Platform’s Sergio Falletti says “We were keen to make the most of the Windows Phone 7 UI, with its panoramas and pivot tables.  The app is a delightful way of teasing you into exploring what’s available and chimes with Lastminutes.com’s distinctive branding.”

The smooth side scroll that showcases European vistas has indeed won praise from users and industry alike for both its usability and aesthetic appeal garnering an array of glowing user reviews.  It has been featured on the Marketplace, is the best-rated Travel app and is being used by Microsoft as a case study for WP7 design best practice.

The app features browsing, searching and booking with added Top Secret hotel deals, where a potential 50% discount on booking 4 and 5 star hotels is available.  The app then stores your booking and integrates it with mapping to make finding your destination that little bit simpler on your arrival.

 

 

Tom Hume’s Mobile Travel Diary

Travel is an important sector for Future Platforms and Vexed: in the last year we’ve launched Top Secret Hotel and general booking apps for lastminute.com, a flight booking app for Malaysian Airlines, and a wealth of web-related updates for De Vere Hotels, who’ve been a customer of Vexed for several years. So when I booked a couple of weeks holiday on the US West Coast for this Easter, it seemed like a good idea to examine the trip from the perspective of a customer: how could mobile improve my travel experience, and where would it still come up short?

 

Booking and Checking In
My girlfriend and I booked our flights out and back using tablet versions of Opodo on an iPad. There’s nothing particularly interesting to report here, it all just worked.  The fun started with checkin: we were flying with British Airways, so I downloaded the excellent BA app for the iPhone – and was instantly impressed. The app gave me the ability to check in there and then, and a digital boarding pass which I could present at security and during boarding. Whilst handing my mobile to a complete stranger felt quite uncomfortable, no one raised an eyebrow when I presented my digital pass. A short delay in our flight was instantly transmitted to the app and flagged even as it was announced over the tannoy, and I was able to see details of our return flights – even hops connected by other airlines. Kudos to BA for creating such a useful and well-oiled service; I can only shiver at the thought of what behind-the-scenes work was necessary to bring it to this high standard.
Once outside the limits of the Orange network, my mobile usage was dominated by fear of running up obscene roaming charges, so I quickly deactivated data roaming on my mobile and started what became a constant hunt for free wi-fi.  An app which assisted with this would have been helpful: I’ve long wanted something which could alert me to nearby wi-fi hot- spots.

 

Getting Around
Google Maps proved excellent for getting around, to the point where we found ourselves bemoaning good navigation for for the serendipitous opportunities it exterminated. I noticed the app also caches map tiles quite aggressively: panning around the local area was enough to load a usable urban map onto my iPhone and have it available when wandering downtown, offline. And when we drove down the beautiful Californian coast and were covering greater distances (sometimes without even mobile coverage – some remote parts of Big Sur forced us away from the Internet for a while), a few screenshots of maps served us well.  Good to know the Rough Guides series of apps Future Platforms is launching on Windows Phone 7 will have maps available offline too then!  The one thing I would have liked is a guide to local driving regulations; anyone who’s enjoyed the experience of travelling as a passenger whilst I drive will understand why.

 

WiFi Maps
My other observation was around the symbolic nature of Wi-fi: scanning for hot spots whilst standing on Mission, I was chuffed to notice the Stamen Design wireless network; on another trip around town, Ammunition Group announced themselves through their SSID. These little advertisements of local businesses reminded me of the maps FourSquare are building, matching geolocations to points of interest to humans: I was left with the aftertaste of a semantic map every bit as interesting as that of the Muni bus routes or CalTrain.

 

Coming Home
Overall, I was impressed. BA had reached through the touchscreen of my mobile to hold my hand reassuringly as they shipped me across the globe. And I couldn’t help reflecting that whilst a decade ago I would frequently get lost in the backstreets of Tokyo, or have trouble establishing exactly which metro I should take to find my way home in Barcelona, the sensation of being truly lost was one I would find it hard to recreate nowadays.

SheSays: ‘Brand You’ Or 3 Tips on How to Market Yourself

On Thursday some of our female contingent ventured through the April showers down to The Marketing Store where in a rather cool basement the creative, curious, powerful and innovative gathered to listen to three inspirational female speakers in digital and design.  The event is run by global network SheSays (which is an award-winning organization running free mentorship and events for women in the creative and marketing businesses), with the theme of ‘Brand You’.

First up was Ciara O’Meara who told us about how she landed her first dream designer job in the states.   Ciara secured her dream job with  by writing a poem to the director.  Keen to stand out amongst the crowd of CVs she penned her very own poem to him, and lo and behold received an invitation to interview from the man himself.  Ciara is now an Creative Director at her own start-up and in her spare time runs a Twitter account in which she will draw your image for a follow…a great, simple idea!

Next up was our very own Managing Director at Vexed and Future Platforms, Xanthe, who gave a presentation on how branding yourself, although similar to a company or business branding strategy, is at heart about staying true to your values, your strengths and personal integrity.

Finally we heard from Nicola Sherry from Sidekick Studios who spoke about their inspirational work on projects such as the Amazings, which provides a platform for retired people with skills.  Her message for personal branding success was about seizing opportunities, good old fashioned cover letters and not being afraid to get your hands dirty to get small projects off the ground.

SheSays is well worth a visit, check out their future events here, we met and chatted to some lovely ladies who are making it work in their chosen fields and was well worth traipsing through the spring rain for!

First tip: Do Your Homework!

Second tip: Be True To Yourself

Third tip: Seize The Chance…and don’t be afraid of new experiences.

Easter Eye Candy: Instagram Bought by Facebook & Pinterest’s Popularity Soaring

The big news over the bank holiday weekend was Facebook buying Instagram almost out of the blue

Immediately a backlash begun with many Insta-fans downloading their pictures and heading for the door and a slew of alternatives being offered on sites like Wired.  What’s the problem?  Well people have seen big company’s such as Facebook buying out smaller apps such as Instagram before, and all too often watched the app suffer because of it, and as with anything Facebook touched there are concerns on how user’s data will be used and privacy around this.  However Instagram have reason to celebrate; to the tune of $1bn, and Facebook surely have made a shrewd move buying up the most viral and popular digital photo app on the market, with all its user’s visual data to boot…

Pinterest: Now The Third Largest Social Network after Facebook and Twitter!

I know, I know, you’ve either heard it all before and think its just another social fad or you’re already pinning away and think this is old news but whatever your take on the picture-friendly site Pinterest- it has leapt into the big time by becoming the third largest social network, overtaking Google+ and Linkedin in a sharp upward trajectory of users and buzz surrounding its potential.

Many are eyeing the network’s marketing potential, and startups and apps springing up around this such as the ‘Pinvolve’ Facebook App which connects the two networks, analytics from startups such as Pinpuff, PinReach, and spinoffs such as Mapinterest which takes what you pin and maps it, to name a small few.

Are you an Instagram fan who’s on the move or Pinterest pro who’s already on it? Get in touch @vexeddigital and tell us what you think.

 

Highlights from Internet Retailing Expo 2012

On 21st March we headed to the Internet Retailing Expo at the Birmingham NEC with an aim to engage with those embracing multichannel commerce and digital revenue streams in the world of retail.  IRX aims to show the ‘whole gamut of multichannel retail’ and attracts top-level retailers and digital players from all over the UK.

There was an air of confidence, almost revolution, among the speakers and delegates.  E-commerce practitioners have been growing in stature within their organisations and are now clearly pressing for internal changes to the way their businesses work.  There were plenty of references to buyers who know it all, slow-moving IT departments and marketing departments still obsessed with traditional advertising.

The talks were well attended and on the whole invigorating. A few selected highlights from our time there included:

1.     John Bovill from Jacques Vert giving a very lucid presentation on the challenges facing e-tailers today.    He talked about the need to go from multi-channel to cross-channel; in other words, focus on the consistency and quality of the consumer experience across all your touchpoints. He also highlighted the importance of product availability and how a more coordinated interplay between stores and digital channels can help retailers strike the right balance between lost sales and excessive stock needing discounting.

2.   Jo Stanford, IT Director at De Vere Hotels, talked about the long-term strategy that underpins the work Vexed Digital have been undertaking over the last few years. The focus has been on building a technical platform that can support their diverse portfolio of brands, while also enabling De Vere to adapt to new and emerging platforms such as mobile to expand their service offering.
3.    A leading English Football Club presented on how they have driven sales very successfully through customised products via Facebook such as signed programmes and bespoke merchandise. Thus demonstrating how approaching f-commerce is very different to that through more traditional online channels

4. We also caught up with tesco.com who were present to demonstrate some of the innovation they have undertaken with Augmented Reality.  As well as spearheading an AR campaign in Korea which has inspired a wave of copies they told us about how they have substantially increased sales of DVD and game titles through offering video playback when the physical product was held up to in store webcams.

5. Finally a shout out to Tom Allason from Shutl. The Shoreditch-based startup are looking at disrupting the delivery market by aggregating smaller, point-to-point delivery companies. The result is appealing scenario of online/mobile customers receiving their treasured new goods within the hour… a bit like Domino’s Pizza, but for dry goods.  Tom gave a spirited presentation and they have live services to point to – the challenge will be in maintaining a high standard of service among the disparate delivery companies as Shutl expand.
All in all it was an informative day and vindicated the view that the world of e-commerce is becoming ever more fragmented. Now more than ever its imperative to understand a consumer’s preference in terms of new channel adoption and ensure they are catered for wherever they reside.

7 UK Brands Making Their Mark with Multichannel

A multichannel campaign is critical in today’s digitally revolutionized retail environment.  Multichannel means brands can effectively reach their customers wherever it suits them; making brands relationships stronger with their audience and ultimately increasing profit and success.  We list 7 UK brands forging ahead with multichannel campaigns now:

Oasis

Oasis announced last week that they were incorporating iPad m-commerce into their bricks and mortar stores after a trial in their London flagship proved a success, resulting in 20% of sales in its first week.  Oasis’ MD, Liz Evans, says of multichannel strategy on and offline: “Customers now demand more from physical stores: more excitement, outstanding service and a more personalised experience driven by new technology”.  iPads now outnumber traditional pay point tills in their stores, providing online information and browsing of products for both customers and staff, taking the in-store experience to the same level as that of shopping online.   The company was just announced as one of the top 5 companies globally who are excelling in multichannel, because of their strong mobile offering and integrated customer journey on and offline.

Mamas and Papas

Mamas and Papas has cleverly targeted a new breed of technologically empowered busy parents ‘on the go’ with a new multichannel strategy that extends their ecommerce capabilities across mobile devise and other channels, including F-commerce.

Thorntons

The chocolatier has undertaken a rebalancing strategy of late, cleverly putting multichannel at the fore of their plans and focusing on an ecommerce site in place of store closures to increase profit and secure their future success.

Morrisons & Kiddicare

The grocery retailer acquired children’s ecommerce retailer Kiddicare last year and has been integrating the bricks and mortar of their own offering with their newly acquired company’s digital model of apps, ecommerce and kiosks to create a multichannel model across both brands.

Debenhams

This UK department store is securing their place on the high street with an astute multi-channel strategy.  Debenhams now offers “click and collect”, where shoppers can order on the store’s ecommerce site and then collect in-store and QR labels in-store which show customers an online store to get more information or make a purchase on their smartphone.  These strategies show how online and offline can be merged to increase conversion and make the shopping experience more effective and helpful for customers.

John Lewis Partnership

John Lewis has built up a great reputation as one retailer doing multichannel exceedingly well.  They’ve done this by offering Click-to-Collect services where customers can order items online and the collect in-store as well as a bespoke store designed to simulate the online shopping experience which will be the prototype of future stores due to be rolled out across the UK.

LK Bennett

LK Bennett have been quietly forging ahead a multichannel strategy and initiatives such as integrated online and in-store returns, apps and an excellent ecommerce site which uses ‘hotspotting’ and 360 degree views of their products online have helped the company to achieve a 17% rise in profits this year compared to 2011.

Multichannel and AR Trending for Brands

Internet Retailing & Multichannel

Today Richard Davies and Sergio Falletti are up in Birmingham for the Internet Retailing Expo which is showcasing the current need for multichannel selling in retail.  Read Sergio’s first in a series of blogposts about multichannel and expect a post on the highlights of today’s trip coming soon.

Augmented Reality Success is Trending

Brands are showing interest in a technology trend that could provide extra va va voom to campaigns, as well as future revemue streams; AR or Augemented Reality.  As reported in NMA brands such as Debenhams, Top Gear and Clarkes are all seeing spikes in engagment and profit when employing AR into campaign.

Top Gear integrated AR into their previous print editions and has since seen “tens of thousands” of video views, according to publisher Simon Carrington. “Research has shown us that 50% of our readership has access to smartphones and one in four of those [27%] engaged with the video content, and that was just from the first two editions,” he said.

What’s more is AR is seen as the better, more sophisticated technology trend to engage customers when compared to the QR code craze which has since been mocked for its ineffectual usage; Carrington adds “We’ve all tried QR codes and they are a bit clunky, whereas this allows us to create the same effect much more easily,” he said.

Other brands incorporating  AR into their campaigns include department store Debenhams, sports brand Reebok and shoe retailer Clarks in a move towards online and offline multichannel strategies, all with some degree of measurable success.  Debenhams saw a 300% rise in sales for a lingerie range promoted using AR, Debenhams social media manager Ruth Leach saying “We are seeing a real ROI from using it and it is a really effective way of bringing print ads to life by capitalising on our digital assets,” she said. “We’ll definitely use it for future campaigns.”

A week @ Mobile World Congress 2012

Another year, another Mobile World Congress closing its gates.

For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of attending this once-a-year mobile industry meet-up, you should know that it is so huge that the best way of really hearing what’s going on is to follow it online.  No point in walking miles to hit all the stands.

The point of being here is that you get to catch up with the rest of the industry around the Fira, at fringe events and at the parties around town (Helen Keagan’s Swedish Beers above all). So what were people talking about?

Mobile payments struck a chord.  Facebook’s announcement that they want to solve the mobile payments problem was the main highlight: app stores will continue to have the upper hand when it comes to micropayments until there are alternatives that are global and just as seamless.

Paypal joined in,with their own declaration of intent. They also added a data point: they are expecting $7bn worth of mobile payments in 2012.

While the big guns try and solve a problem that should have been sorted ages ago, the mobile industry is already setting the next challenge: NFC payments. Visa announced their partnership with Samsung for the Olympics and with Vodafone for the Vodafone Mobile Wallet.  It feels like it is just the beginning – surely device fragmentation will step in and hold back full rollout for a few years.

I may have been talking to the wrong people, but the Html5 vs. Native debate seems to have become more rational.  Facebook, again, brought it into light by announcing their involvement in Html standards evolution – effectively recognition of the fact that Html5 is still short of the build-once-deploy-everywhere promise – something we have talked about a lot.  It is still the future though, and the Telefonica+Mozilla partnership shows that powerful players are behind it.

I didn’t really look at many devices. Every year needs a tech first, and I would give that to the Galaxy Beam – mobiles with projectors have been promised for years and it’s good to see someone mad enough to make it happen. On the downside, I didn’t hear many positive comments about the award-winning Nokia 808 PureView – is a 41MP camera more likely to beat the iPhone than a projector beam?

The one theme that stood out when looking at devices was the idea of cross-media / cross-platformexperiences. Sony were showing off multiplayer gaming with console vs. smartphone, Microsoft showed a preview of Windows 8 seamlessly working across devices and there was a lot of talk about 2nd-screen experiences. Designing and executing these kind of experiences is probably the most exciting challenge in our industry.

Last but not least – the OS war. Apple were not here, as usual. Still odd, given that they currently define where the mobile industry is at, in terms of audience and revenue. They at least organized a party and were (possibly) bothered enough to time their iPad3 pre-announcement with Eric Schmidt’s keynote. Android was everywhere – again, no surprise there. I think that Nokia & Microsoft did well out of it: they have a good product, Skype is now on WP7 (beta), they get some sympathy for the mountain they have to climb, and Windows 8 impressed everyone.

by Sergio Falletti