by Kevin Coupe
Retail System Research (RSR) is out with a report saying that "85 percent of retailers showed the same home page to new and returning visitors," "83 percent of retail mobile sites do not leverage any previous shopping behavior information to help online shoppers," and "74 percent of IR100 sites have no memory of past products browsed by users during previous visits, which forces shoppers to start the entire discovery process over again."
To me, this suggests that an enormous number of retailers either don't understand the power of Amazon, don't believe that Amazon's ability to do all these things has the potential to significantly handicap their growth, or live is a kind of delusional parallel universe where specific customer data that allows businesses to specifically and relevantly target shoppers isn't used and doesn't matter.
Parallel universes may exist. But not this one.
Every shopper who goes on Amazon sees a different page than every other shopper who goes on Amazon. We all get different offers, different promotions, all keyed to past purchasing and browsing behavior. Amazon knows what we're interested in, what we've bought, and what we are likely to buy if nudged in the right direction.
That's the universe that we live in. That is the universe in which retailers have to do battle.
You can think of Amazon as the Death Star, or as the Rebel Alliance. It doesn't matter.
You have to come prepared to battle. Numbers like these are Eye-Opening, because they suggested a lot of retailers aren't really in the game.
Retail System Research (RSR) is out with a report saying that "85 percent of retailers showed the same home page to new and returning visitors," "83 percent of retail mobile sites do not leverage any previous shopping behavior information to help online shoppers," and "74 percent of IR100 sites have no memory of past products browsed by users during previous visits, which forces shoppers to start the entire discovery process over again."
To me, this suggests that an enormous number of retailers either don't understand the power of Amazon, don't believe that Amazon's ability to do all these things has the potential to significantly handicap their growth, or live is a kind of delusional parallel universe where specific customer data that allows businesses to specifically and relevantly target shoppers isn't used and doesn't matter.
Parallel universes may exist. But not this one.
Every shopper who goes on Amazon sees a different page than every other shopper who goes on Amazon. We all get different offers, different promotions, all keyed to past purchasing and browsing behavior. Amazon knows what we're interested in, what we've bought, and what we are likely to buy if nudged in the right direction.
That's the universe that we live in. That is the universe in which retailers have to do battle.
You can think of Amazon as the Death Star, or as the Rebel Alliance. It doesn't matter.
You have to come prepared to battle. Numbers like these are Eye-Opening, because they suggested a lot of retailers aren't really in the game.
- KC's View:
