For anyone interested in the health and well-being of the UK retail sector this week’s report from British Land and conducted by Verdict Retail will make fascinating reading.
The research project, titled ‘The True Value of Stores’ argues that retailers have moved from a multi-channel view (offline versus online) to a more omni-channel view where both offline and online complement each other’s role, impact and revenue contribution.
Based on a robust panel of 30,000 shoppers surveyed in the 12-months to March 2016 the research hopes to quantify the share of online sales that are directly influenced by store visits (whether shoppers have bought, collected or just touched the product in-store). Knowing these facts enables the ‘TVoS’ metric to be calculated.
Just in case you’ve not spotted it – TVoS isn’t a 1990’s TV video recorder – it’s the “True Value of Stores’. Neat.
Interestingly the research also identifies online sales (only) where the ‘halo’ effect of retail stores, e.g. brand values, reassurance of the store for returns, customer services, etc has influenced online purchases.
From the research we’ve borrowed the following, as some of the most interesting facts are:
- In 2015, 89% of all UK retail sales by value touched a store
- Click & collect and store browsing boost physical sales by +5%, rising to +9% when excluding Food & Grocery
- The boost to physical sales varies considerably by sector, e.g. sales of Electricals are boosted by +32%, while Health & Beauty sales only see a +3% boost
- Excluding Food & Grocery, store operators account for two thirds of all online sales, and over half of these touch a storeWomen use click & collect more than men, and engage more with stores overall as part of their shopper journeys
- Londoners are used to blending channels, and are more likely to visit a store when they shop compared with the rest of the UK
- People aged 16-24 and 25-34 use physical stores more than older age groups, suggesting physical retail will prosper.
(Stats above taken from the report’s Exec Summary)
As mentioned, to anyone involved or interested in the retailing sector – whether offline or online – this report makes interesting reading.
For some online retailers, such as Amazon, it will no doubt add to their own insight suggesting there’s merit to having some ‘bricks and mortar’ presence, if only pop-ups, temporary or seasonal.
If you’re interested the report can be downloaded, click HERE. Enjoy!