It seems that since the study was published, some traditional retailers have announced plans to evolve their strategies in favour of adopting transactional websites that will complement their overall sales revenue. Although this won't have been a knee-jerk reaction (these decisions will have been planned months ago), it's noteworthy that some traditional retailers are clearly stating their intent to fight back against the pure-plays in 2007.
IKEA are probably one of the most significant brands to announce an e-commerce platform on Ikea.com next year, due to launch in Q1 2007. Branded "IKEA Shop Online!" the shift in strategy is significant for the Swedish company in the sense that their traditional business model - until now - has focused on the concept and shopping experience behind their flagship blue and yellow stores nationwide. By announcing the change, IKEA are effectively admitting that they need to extend their offline presence into the digital arena before their margins are further reduced by the likes of Tesco and Argos, who have seamlessly moved into the home furnishing market. How IKEA fully optimise for the names of their products (one IKEA two-seater sofa is called Klippan) will provide an interesting search engine optimisation challenge. However, their brand alone will undoubtedly stand them in good stead and they're likely to generate significant numbers of online orders almost immediately.
Elsewhere, Morrisons, who are the last major UK supermarket yet to launch transactional capabilities on their website, have announced plans to go e-commerce from the beginning of the New Year. The supermarket faces an uphill challenge from the outset, as Morrisons claim a much smaller percentage of the traditional market share and are already far behind competitors such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys - companies who have established e-commerce platforms with a loyal online following.
With other high street retailers either announcing large returns from making the shift to e-commerce (fashion retailer Oasis reporting sales significantly above targets) or plans to revamp the e-commerce functionality of their sites (outdoor leisure retailers Blacks and Millets), it's no wonder 2007 is shaping up to be the most competitive year ever for online spend.
The notion that a secure, fully transactional website is key to a retailer's online strategy has seemingly been cemented into marketing departments across the country. The next challenge for these companies will be to figure out ways in which they can successfully further integrate joined-up, multi-channel strategies to fight back against the pure-plays who currently drive the market.
