Four digital trends you need to succeed in 2013

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By TONY FONTANA, COORDINATOR, COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS | Published: JANUARY 13, 2013

Be the first to comment | This entry was posted in Research, Retail Companies

Benchmarking and forecasting. It’s a vicious cycle, especially in retail. But past performance drives future direction, and these were two big concepts discussed by Forrester Research’sSucharita Mulpuru during her First Look presentation this morning at Retail’s BIG Show 2013. And her advice: retailers should temper their optimism for digital retail in the year ahead.

Forrester Research VP, Principal Analyst, Sucharita Mulpuru looks back at 2012 and discusses top digital initiatives for 2013.

One of the hottest topics in the industry in 2012 was same-day delivery and the impact this has had on redefining instant gratification. Mulpuru coined this phenomenon as the “last-mile obsession”, and used an analogy of a strategic chess game move for how smart retailers in the industry were responding to this shift. Just as a savvy chess player situates their castle piece closest to the most important player on the board, the king, retailers are similarly leveraging their online channel to support their brick-and-mortar presence. This idea reflects retailers’ high-prioritization of a seamless multichannel presence, an underlying precedent found in the results of Shop.org’s and Forrester’s latest edition of the State of Retailing Online (SORO) survey, released today at Retail’s BIG Show.

As Mulpuru discussed her outlook for 2013, she shared four main takeaways from the SORO research as well as larger-scale industry trends.

1. With mobile, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.The constant emergence of new devices on the market is constantly reinventing how retailers design and develop. While consumer favorites like Apple’s iPad may seem like an industry standard for tablets, newer products like those ondisplay at CES have caused the design and development process to be “messier” for retailers, Mulpuru said.
2. Whatever is up Amazon’s sleeve will keep you up at night. Mulpuru cited a 40 percent year-over-year growth rate for Amazon from 2011 to 2012, and the company’s innovative Amazon Prime shipping club strategy has helped provide another leg up on the competition. Forrester’s research in tandem with Bizrate Insights shows the perk of free two-day shipping for those signed-up for Amazon Prime has enticed shoppers to spend more, putting the onus on more retailers to invest in this sought-after benefit.
3. Relentless innovation will continue. The fast-track evolution of flash sale sites like Gilt and Rue La La, to daily deal sites such as Groupon, and now subscription sale websites can mean only one thing: what’s the next big thing around the corner? Mulpuru targeted three types of commerce to look out for: curated, distributed and crowd-sourced.
4. Be prepared for the party to end. While the jury is still out on the results of 2012 holiday sales, Mulpuru predicted that retailers would be more strategic in their holiday promotions for 2013. Pointing to Chase Paymentech Solutions figures, which found November online transaction rates were much higher in November than December, the data revealed that more customers were taking advantage of earlier holiday deals. As a result, Mulpuru believes December sales and Q4 sales will be softer overall.

In Mulpuru’s wrap-up, she warned that e-commerce may see tougher times in 2013 – positive news for those that also have physical stores with a welcoming in-store experience. And while responsive web design is king for now, the next chapter in digital retail has yet to be written. But the book is open to those who learn from the innovators to re-implement in their own unique way.