Liberty’s idea to start selling Christmas ornaments in August was perhaps inevitable considering how tough the last few holiday periods have been for retailers. What has also remained depressingly similar is the shopping experience: crowds, confusing sales, and an unnavigable array of merchandise.
Unsurprisingly, Britons are increasingly shopping online. This holiday season, 15% of sales or about £12.8 billion will happen online, says eMarketer. They also project that while traditional retail is expected to grow at 3.6% for the year, ecommerce is set to explode at 16%. Impressive volume aside, ecommerce has lacked the magic of window displays and product discovery associated with going to the High Street, especially during the festive period. But this year, we find retailers leveraging the intrinsic features of ecommerce to offer truly unique experiences. Designed-for-ecommerce retail is here, and it’s breathtaking. If you deplore banal ecommerce that is little more than a clinical product listings, here are four ecommerce merchants that will make your Christmas shopping festive again.
1. Scarosso: I’d always assumed that bespoke shoes were only for those with esoteric Italian connections. Scarosso offers this ultimate luxury at manageable prices through a minimalist website that showcases all your customisation options – material, fit, colour etc. Personalisation is a key way for brands to sell direct-to-consumers, and ecommerce allows them to scale this. Scarosso also proves that execution is as important as being early to market. The site has a standard catalogue, but with free returns, you might as well splurge for the bespoke option.
2. Protest Clothing: Is this the most beautiful website ever made? This active wear and snowboard maker has deployed parallax scrolling to add a depth which makes it tempting to just keep browsing the stunning imagery. That’s okay, because the look books have easy links to the featured products. Ecommerce brilliance is underpinned by excellent content, and Protest truly nails it here. If you don’t know the minutiae of snowboarding, simple copy makes it very clear what each product is – and estimated delivery times add order to this adrenaline packed experience.
3. New Look: Putting a High Street retailer on this list feels like a bit of a cop out. Sure, the website is user friendly - but where the brand really shines is on mobile. With eMarketer projecting 27% of ecommerce sales to be on mobile in 2014, mobile is critical for any retailer this Christmas. For consumers, the distinction between ecommerce and mcommerce is swiftly disappearing. The mobile site is intuitive and shows clothing on actual humans and paired with other items rather than as disjointed pieces floating in the ether. New Look uses mobile features such as geo location and swiping, to deliver a genuinely omni-channel experience.
4. BrightMinds: Everyone has to shop for a nine year old niece they only know from her Harry Styles obsession - but five minutes spent browsing most toy sites are enough to give you an aneurysm. Product organisation is impossible to comprehend unless you understand the pantheon of Japanese superheroes. BrightMinds offers a range of educational toys, and matrix categorisation lets you select gifts based on age, interest, occasion etc. Loads of reviews bring alive the social nature of ecommerce – smart, as reviews are consistently rated as very influential by online shoppers. Having a good and differentiated product is fundamental because consumers can switch retailers with a click, and I for one am happy I don’t have to resort to dolls again this year.
In general, it is encouraging to see UK retailers up their ecommerce game – from mobile friendly sites, to use of search ad extensions for easy navigation. They’ve also developed strong content on site and in social media – where the buy now messaging is easy to find, but isn’t overbearing. We want this trend to continue, and hope more retailers will deliver personalised, user friendly, and visually stunning ecommerce experiences for Christmas next year.
By Mudit Jaju, MEC, Digital & Data Partner, Worldwide
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