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A Critical Evaluation Of Multi-Channel Retailing In The Uk Today

Contents

1.0 The current retail environment
3
1.1 Pestel Factors
5
1.2 Porters 5 Forces Analysis
6

2.1 Successful Multi-Channel Retailers
9
2.2 Success Stories
10
2.3 Channels Working Together
11

3.0 Important aspects of being a Multi-Channel Retailer
13
3.2 The right Channel for the right Company
14
3.1 The Target Customer
17

4.0 Conclusion
18

5.0 Referencing
19

5.1 Bibliography
20
1.0 The current multi-channel environment

A report by the Information Technology consultancy company Chateris recently cited the most popular four retail channels in the UK (See Figure 1, below). These included the internet which dominates sales channel for retailers at the moment (Chateris, UK Multi-Channel Retailing Report, 2006) . The internet is followed closely by stores. Also important are call centers and catalogues. There are three other sales channels used now, of which in-store kiosks are currently the most important for retailers, with many retailers planning to use them in the future. M-commerce (the use of mobile phones for selling and promotions) is predicted to have sizable growth in the future as is selling via Digital Television. Multi-channel retailing is already fairly complex, with up to four of the most popular sales channels used by many retailers. In the future customers are likely to be offered even more choice when the newer sales channels, such as m-commerce, kiosks and digital TV become more widespread.

Figure 1: Sales Channels in use in the UK 2006

(Chateris, UK Multi-Channel Retailing Report, 2006) .
According to Richard Howlay (Online Retail Comes of Age (again), 2006) the UK was found to have the most advanced range of products and services available on the internet with 26,000 different companies trading online in the UK. Amazon UK was the most visited UK online retailer. Dell was number two closely followed by UK brands Tesco and Argos.
From the customers' perspective, having the option to shop via...