Retailing: What's Working Online

NEW YORK - Online retailing has come a long way since the go-go years of the 1990s: It generated $90 billion in revenue for U.S. retailers in 2004 compared with just $8 billion in 1998.

To study how the online strategies of today's successful retailers reflect this maturation, McKinsey analyzed the 100 largest direct retailers in North America. We found that direct retailers with physical stores captured 52% of Internet sales in 2003, while those without stores garnered just 31%. For each group, two broad strategies appear to be most successful. Together, the four models we identified have lessons for all retailers.

Retailers without stores do well as either "efficiency machines" or "niche leaders." The first approach is best for sellers of relatively low-margin products such as CDs, books or computers, because the Web provides the global reach these companies need to gain scale. Efficiency machines--such as Amazon (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) and Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people )--invest heavily in brand marketing, innovative Web sites and highly efficient sourcing and fulfillment processes. These investments create massive fixed costs, often running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, so efficiency machines must generate annual revenue of at least $750 million to be profitable. Such retailers, once successful, tend to generate strong cash flows, however. Amazon invested more than $400 million in marketing and technology in 2004, for example, while generating $477 million in free cash. The largest efficiency machines drive repeat business by offering deals to customers (for example, Amazon's $79 annual membership, which includes unlimited two-day shipping). Of the top 100 direct retailers, only seven are efficiency machines, yet they account for a quarter of total online revenue.

Niche leaders, such as L. L. Bean and Ross-Simons, sell higher-priced, higher-margin products (like apparel or jewelry) primarily through catalogs and over the Internet. Niche leaders build a loyal customer base by offering quality merchandise, exceptional service or both. The ability to acquire and retain customers is crucial, since most niche leaders are too small to afford expensive brand marketing and must rely instead on targeted online or direct-mail campaigns. The most innovative niche leaders coordinate their channels by making products from their catalogs easy to order online, for example, or by using their Web site to display a wider selection of products than a print catalog could accommodate profitably. The 28 niche leaders we studied generated nearly $15 billion in revenue--17% of which came from the Internet--and account for 6% of total online revenue.

Optimism up among online retailers, Shop.org speakers say

With more than three-fourths of online retailers reporting year-over-year sales growth of 30% or more during the 2005 holiday season, optimism is up to over 80% of e-retailers, according to a Shopzilla research study. Most are looking to continued growth driven by increases in broadband web access and customer confidence, speakers at the Shop.org FirstLook conference said today.

Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks Inc., said online retail�s current 5.5% share of total retail sales doesn�t appear ready to level off. �There is a lot of upside,� he said. �We�ll see continued growth for years to come,�

Fulgoni, who appeared on a panel with representatives of Amazon, J. Jill , QVC, Jupiter Research and Nielsen/NetRatings, agreed with other panelists that continued online sales growth will be driven by the expansion of broadband web access in homes, the rising comfort level of online shoppers, and the next generation of adult consumers who are already accustomed to using the Internet through conventional computers and wireless handheld devices.

Robert Myers, vice president of interactive marketing and business development, QVC Inc., said that QVC.com is seeing its sharpest year-to-year growth in the 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. time slot, reflecting the rise in home broadband access. Myers said retailers will spur growth by investing in better site usability and site analytics as well as quality products. �That will really drive sales," he said. Steven Goldsmith, vice president for apparel, footwear, jewelry and watches at Amazon, said Amazon sold 600,000 gift cards between Thanksgiving and Christmas. �That is partly why the first half of January has been so good,� he said.

The Shopzilla study notes customer satisfaction with online retailing reached 96% as of Jan. 12, up from 86% last year. The Shopzilla study was based on surveys conducted from Sept. 23 to Jan. 12. The latest wave of the survey occurred among 2,500 online buyers and 104 merchants between Jan. 9 and 12.

Why Your Web 2.0 Business Plan Doesn't Work

Opinion: That which works best online is that which can only work online.

A fairly innocuous posting on Slashdot caught my eye recently while trolling around for tech news. It seems that WOXY, one of the Internet's largest online-only radio stations, is moving to a subscription model after years of promising to keep their feeds free. Mildly interesting, but not earth-shattering, right?

I thought so, too. But then I started to think about online radio and the publishing of multimedia content in general. Some researching led me to discover that online radio is projected to have a pretty big future, a fact that makes perfect sense to me, a big online-audio consumer.

It seems to make sense. Internet radio offers literally hundreds (if not thousands) of choices, is free, and is more or less "on-demand." But if it's such a good idea, then why would WOXY be having problems? After all, podcasting is growing by leaps and bounds. There are even podcast-programmed radio stations such as KYOURADIO and its broadcast sister station KYCY-AM. What's WOXY's problem?

My search for an answer continued, and after poking around a bit, I came across a couple of services that seemed like amazingly cool ideas. First was Pandora, an outgrowth of The Music Genome Project, which creates custom online "radio" stations based on your own musical preferences. Next I found Last.FM, a free service that lets you set up your own online "radio" station and network with other folks who use the service. Cool stuff.

I cast my net further. Would this kind of social media networking work with other types of media? Some more poking around landed me on Videobomb, a new venture by the Participatory Culture Foundation folks that allows anyone to grab Internet videos and then publish (or "bomb") them on the site. Much like the system on Digg, visitors to the site can rate videos and decide what goes on the homepage. Not only that, but Videobomb also lets users create their own "TV Station" online that shows the videos they've found and want to share. Cool stuff.

Videobomb cool. Pandora cool. Last.FM cool. WOXY for pay? Not so much. All of a sudden it started to make sense to me: The models for publishing online that are gonna work are the ones that are only possible online.

Think about it: Could Videobomb, Pandora, Last.FM, Digg, Slashdot, MySpace and eBay exist offline? Of course they couldn't! Could WOXY exist offline? Um … duh! Of course it can: It's called "radio," and it's been with us for around 100 years now. Sure, being online offers a few minor perks for a station like that, but overall, it ain't doing something that couldn't be done with older technology and, I might add, more conveniently. Until we've got ubiquitous Wi-Fi, taking Internet radio on the go is kind of tough. And even if we did have ubiquitous Wi-Fi, the quality of a good connection is still going to be less than the quality of a bad FM radio. It's just the way things work.

Taken together, it all comes down to a simple axiom: That which works best online is that which can work only online. Call it what you will (I prefer "Carton's Law of Online Publishing," but that may be seen as a little immodest), but if you look around the Web, this axiom holds true. From e-commerce to e-zine publishing, sites that offer no benefit beyond their "old media" counterparts fail while others that offer additional value in the form of features old media can't emulate (such as multimedia, social filtering, RSS feeds, on-demand content, constantly updated content, etc.) thrive.

It explains the popularity of blogs, on-demand video downloads, pod/videocasting, online dating, auctions, social networking and many of the other services we've seen pop up over the past couple of years. It explains the appeal of AJAX-driven sites (try doing Google Maps-like actions with the printed map in your glove compartment!) and many of the more interesting "Web 2.0"-like services.

So next time you think about publishing, think about this: Is what you're doing something that could only work in an online environment and something that takes advantage of the medium? If so, go for it. If not, you may belong in the analog world.

Bright ideas

Online shoppers want more power to choose�the web invents new ways to serve it up.

Smart marketers have always known that the customer is king, but a look at what�s on the drawing board and entering the marketplace at technology developers suggests online retailers will soon have even more new ways to give shoppers royal treatment.

The theme of shopper empowerment characterizes much of what�s currently on the minds and in the labs of developers and the online marketers they target. Providers are reworking technology initially deployed in other sectors or available only to site operators on the backend and rolling it out directly to the consumer web interface. They�re figuring out new ways to segment online content according to consumers� preferences and deliver it in richer formats. It�s all geared toward an improved shopping experience�and improved sales.

In a scan of new online merchandising and marketing technology developments both within the company and across the marketplace, �It comes back to the convergence of the channels and efforts to make it easier for consumers,� says Kim Weller, principal consultant, user experience, at technology consulting firm Molecular Inc. �Some of the tools that typically have been reserved for staff, such as the ability to find products across different stores, are being made available to consumers.�

Molecular already has helped Talbots Inc. roll out such capacity to its online customers. Style Search, a feature implemented on Talbots.com last year, which lets online shoppers locate an item of apparel in a Talbots store and reserve it online for a store visit, is based on inventory data previously available only to store associates at the POS terminal.

Even that capability, which only a short time ago was on the cutting edge of technology implementations, may soon be trumped, says Don Cosseboom, director of research and development at Molecular. He sees a day in the not-distant future when the web interface will put at online shoppers� fingertips the ability to determine where in the store an item is located. That could allow online consumers to establish not only whether an item is in their local store but where it�s actually located within the store, before they leave home to pick it up.

Cosseboom explains how such an application might work. �Most big box bookstores, for example, have consistent layouts, according to which version of the store the company is running in any location. So if a shopper is looking for the French Laundry cookbook, the system would know that in this bookstore, the cookbook section is located in this area,� he says. If that location capacity exists within a store�s back-end system, it can be put out on the web interface, he adds.

Weller says this type of web-to-store application could find use in home improvement stores, mega bookstores, consumer electronics stores, or any large store where shoppers must spend time searching the aisles to find what they are looking for. It empowers consumers to get to the products they want more easily by cutting through the double barriers of understanding whether a product is in the store and understanding where in the store the product is shelved, Cosseboom says, adding that he would not be surprised if this type of application rolled out in retail within a year.

Price comparison�by phone

Molecular also foresees a growing number of new shopping applications for web-enabled wireless technology: for instance, applications that would allow a shopper to compare via wireless device prices on the same product at local consumer electronics stores without actually having to go to or phone the store.

Already, says Weller, Amazon�s Japan operation has gone a step beyond this concept with an application that allows customers to use camera phones to take a picture of a book�s bar code, submit it wirelessly to Amazon, and receive a text message on Amazon�s price on the book in return. In the U.S., software developer ScanBuy has launched a retail application, ScanZoom, designed for incorporation into camera phones, that allows consumers with an equipped phone to point it at a barcode and immediately access existing content related to that bar code.

�It�s something camera phones and bar codes were never intended to be used for, but they are tying these different technologies together,� Weller says. In addition to a convergence of channels, new shopping applications such as these preview a future in which technologies themselves converge. �Examples like this rely on the phone�s wireless network to connect to the Internet. In the future, your cell phone will probably use a wi-fi network as a way to connect. So the whole idea of wireless being carrier-level versus Internet will be even fuzzier than it is today,� says Cosseboom.

Fuzzy search

�Fuzzy� is a good thing at Transparensee Systems Inc., developer of product search technology. That might seem contradictory for search. But Bruce Colwin, vice president of business development, believes search could be a better experience for consumers�and capture more online conversions at merchants�if it were less sharp and a little more fuzzy.

Transparensee has developed technology it says is a next-generation, more user-friendly product search that is an alternative to guided navigation. The technology is applicable to search in any industry sector where the range of attributes attached to a product is so broad and complex that an exact match against all specified preferences is unlikely, according to Colwin.

�Two of the biggest problems in e-commerce search, as seen by the user, are that your search produces no results, in which case you have to keep changing your preferences until you find something, or you broaden your search so much that you get too many results back, with little relevance. These are the problems we�re addressing,� Colwin says.

The so-called �fuzzy� search technology delivers results that not only represent the precise value the searcher has asked for, but also whatever represents the values immediately below or above the searched-for value. On a real estate site search, for example, for a house with a specific number of rooms, square feet, construction type, and multiple other attributes, a precise match might yield no results because no house matches all of what was searched for. That leaves the searcher guessing which values he must change to produce a match. Tranparensee�s tool finds results close to what the searcher has asked for, in addition to any precise matches. The technology makes adjustments concurrently across multiple data fields to deliver results that though technically �fuzzy,� are meaningful to the search.

Colwin says an implementation has been developed as proof of concept for a retailer currently using conventional guided navigation, and it�s also being tested internally by a second retailer. The product has been deployed in the non-retail sector for more than a year. The company sees potential application of the product for any online seller of products associated with multiple specs and data fields, such as consumer electronics.

The e-email alternative

Overstuffed e-mail in-boxes have some marketers looking for additional means of customer communication beyond e-mail, and RSS has received attention as one alternative. Consumers subscribe to the content they wish to receive via RSS, in much the same way they register for e-mail, but though RSS skirts the e-mail channel, the technology poses a limitation for brand marketers: it delivers information in text instead of the richer communication possible directly on a site and through some e-mail.

Direct Message Lab has developed technology that targets that problem with a separate channel, outside of e-mail, that can deliver subscribed content directly to consumers� desktops in a media-rich format. While RSS is an option on the platform, it�s just one component. �If I were Mattel, and I wanted to deliver information on new things that were happening with Barbie, delivering it through RSS is delivering a headline and a description. It doesn�t convey the brand in the way you want to,� say Steven Plous, CEO.

By contrast, the company�s Brand Channel can deliver rich content, with a branded look based on the brand�s preferences, directly to subscribed users through the window it opens on the subscriber�s desktop screen. The service has two parts: on the front end, an application that sits on the user�s desktop, which periodically reaches out to Direct Message Lab servers for requested content; and on the back end, a web-based administrative console that the brand marketer uses to create and deploy content requested by the user.

Plous says the channel is spam-proof. �The application goes only to Direct Message Lab servers and looks for messages appropriate to the user. So the only messages that can be delivered through the Brand Channel application are messages from our domain,� he says. The hosted service can deliver complex applications including e-commerce in the delivered message.

Three customers, including an online retailer, went live with a beta version of the Brand Channel in January. Plous views the Brand Channel as an application that, at least initially, marketers will use to target their best customers, who can be encouraged to register with incentives such as getting the first look at new merchandise. It�s those fans of the brand who are most likely to engage with the channel, he adds.

�Our goal is to improve purchases in the top 10% to 20% of your customers,� he says. �If we can do that, then we�ve done something spectacular.� Once a base for the channel has been established among those top customers, the channel has further use as a customer acquisition tool, he adds.

Evolution of e-catalogs

Enriching subscribed content is one way online marketers are seeking to keep an increasingly sophisticated online consumer engaged. One execution of that theme is an evolution of e-catalogs that puts the image-enhancing, information-grabbing and shopping cart functionality accessible on the rest of the web site right into the middle of the catalog page. Scene7 Inc. recently rolled out that new functionality, in development over the past year, at a number of e-retailers. It�s also scheduled to go live shortly at Amazon.com Inc. The tool, called Shop by Collection, is geared toward online merchants looking to move beyond an e-catalog to functionality more integrated into the web experience. �People launch e-catalogs because they love the lifestyle imagery. The challenge is that it�s a separate fork on your web site. It�s not really integrated into the web shopping experience,� says CEO Doug Mack.

Current e-catalog technology most often requires the shopper interested in several products in a lifestyle photo of a room setting, for example, to switch around among multiple product pages to find detail and shopping links for all the products. Shop by Collection incorporates what Mack describes as �next-generation user interfaces� around core dynamic imaging technology that will allow merchants to load all content related to all the products in the room setting into a template so as to provide a single-screen merchandising experience.

�So if I am looking at some lifestyle imagery and I hover over an item on the page, there�s a data feed that will then show the product in silhouette, with all product information such as price and dimensions,� he says. Shoppers who want to drill down for greater visual detail can from that page also implement zoom, color switching, and other imaging functionality for individual items in the lifestyle photo. From that page, shoppers can also drop the items in the photo into a cart.

�The idea is to move the web away from being a point, click and wait for a new page medium,� adds Mack.

Whether finding it online more easily with improved search, finding it more easily in a brick and mortar store with information gleaned online, or more easily plucking a single item from a room setting, getting to the desired product faster is a key driver in new and upcoming generations of online retail technology. Though the technology may be new, however, it replicates online an axiom already known by any store retailer that stacks the best deals at the end of an aisle and every cataloger that positions its most striking new merchandise at the front of the book: Shortening the distance between the customer and the right product is one of the best ways to shorten the distance to a sale.

internet-based procurement gets $10m injection

First Index, which offers manufacturers an internet-based procurement service, has received $10.8 million in new in new investment from a consortium of leading UK and US venture capital funds.
First Index, a company that enables manufacturers to quickly and easily find suppliers and procure specialised custom-made engineering components via the internet, has received $10.8 million in new investment from a consortium of leading UK and US venture capital funds. The consortium comprises LMS Capital, Bessemer Venture Capital Partners (BVP) and Quester. With an internet-based product already showing rapid growth and a profit in the UK and USA, the software company will use the funds in two ways.

As well as developing a raft of new e-procurement services it plans to substantially expand it's existing business in the USA and to swiftly penetrate new continental European markets.

Two additional non-executive directors will join the board of First Index as it enters its new growth phase.

They are Michael Bennett of LMS Capital and Felda Hardyman from Bessemer.

more/- Michael Bennett of LMS Capital said: 'First Index has developed an industry-leading sourcing service through a close understanding of customer and supplier requirements for custom-made parts.

We believe First Index has developed a highly successful business model that offers real value to both buyers and suppliers.

This has been reflected in transactions already measured in billions of dollars a year, a performance that exceeds most B2B exchanges.' For First Index, the company's founder, Hans Wigart, said: 'The automated sourcing service we were first to offer is based on an existing and highly successful product that lends itself perfectly to online operations.

The internet could have been designed for the service and we are already experiencing significant demand since launching the online version, based on popular Microsoft technology.

By expanding our international presence and by keeping abreast of the latest technological developments, we can stay at the forefront of this growing market sector.' Formed in 1992, First Index has been helping buyers to source custom-made components in several key manufacturing industry areas.

First Index products help buyers in manufacturing companies to reduce procurement costs by quickly finding the best financial and technical solution to their requirements.

In turn, it helps suppliers to find profitable work and to save on their companies' marketing and sales resources.

Since January 2000, over 7,000 buyers have posted 28,000 requests for quote and requests for information worth an estimated $10bn in business value to those customers.

In July 2000 the company launched 'findFAST Online', an internet version of its paper directory and CD-based sourcing service for custom-made components.

Over 1,700 manufacturers have accessed the service since that time.

Finding and collaborating with suppliers via the internet can achieve major savings in time and costs by speeding up the process of finding the best match and completing the transaction very quickly with little or no capital expenditure.

Users of findFAST Online are evenly divided between Europe and the USA, and are increasing at a rate of over 300 new customers per month.

LMS Capital is the venture capital arm of London Merchant Securities plc (LMS) an active venture investor in both the UK and US.

LMS Capital has significant experience in communications, internet infrastructure, software and e-commerce, and a successful record of investment in early-stage technology ventures for over 15 years.

In recent years, LMS Capital has increased its investment activities in high-growth technology and e-commerce ventures in the UK.

Recent e-commerce successes include the US IPOs of Commerce One, InterTrust Technologies, Interwoven, Broadbase Software and Chordiant Software.

In each case LMS Capital was an early-stage investor.

The LMS Capital UK software and e-commerce portfolio includes Elateral, Genient, GroupTrade, Magex, and Stepstone.

Bessemer Venture Partners is one of the oldest US based private venture capital firms.

In 1911, Henry Phipps established what was to become Bessemer Securities Corporation (BVP's principal limited partner) as an investment firm for the benefit of his descendants, starting with his share of the proceeds from the sale of Carnegie Steel.

Since its inception, a central component of Bessemer Securities' charter has been to invest in and help build innovative, high-growth companies.

Some of the companies that Bessemer helped establish or build in the early days includes W.R.

Grace, International Paper, and Ingersoll-Rand.

Today, Bessemer Venture Partners continues this tradition and invests approximately $400 million each year, while other Bessemer entities manage more than $2 billion of investments in public and private non-venture capital assets.

BVP has offices in California, Massachusetts and New York and the company's efforts are entirely devoted to financing and building young companies.

Founded in 1984, Quester is an independent UK venture capital company specialising in unquoted growth companies.

Quester raises funds from institutions and individuals and has more than GBP300 million under management.

The company focuses particularly on sectors such as software, internet enabling technology businesses, telecoms services and equipment, semiconductors, optical networking, new media, healthcare, life sciences and new materials.

Quester manages institutional venture capital funds supported by international investors, an e-commerce fund for CGNU, the major insurance group, the University Challenge Funds for Oxford and Bath and Bristol Universities, the Isis College Fund, focused on technology companies emerging from Oxford University, as well as four venture capital trusts, Quester VCT plc, Quester VCT 2 plc, Quester VCT 3 plc and Quester VCT 4 plc.

Both its institutional funds and its venture capital trusts have strong track records.

Sunderland plant set European productivity record

The UK has the two most productive car plants in Europe according to World Markets Research Centre's annual European Automotive Productivity Index.
World Markets Automotive, a division of World Markets Research Centre, yesterday issued its annual European Automotive Productivity Index. Nissan's Sunderland plant once again topped the industry list for Europe, more than 40% ahead of the rest of the field. Productivity at the Nissan plant soared in 2000, increasing the number of vehicles per employee by 30%.

The improvement at Nissan was achieved as the company succeeded in slightly reducing its workforce while, at the same time, adding a third model, the Almera.

Output increased from 271,157 in 1999 to 327,701 in 2000.

The ratio of 122 cars per employee sets a new European productivity record.

The achievement followed a period of uncertainty for the plant.

Renault, which had acquired a stake in Nissan, recently considered transferring production of Nissan models from Sunderland to its existing plant at Flins in France.

The company claimed it achieved higher levels of output by using a young, well-motivated workforce, Nissan's lean Japanese manufacturing model and the established practice of continuous improvement, or 'kaizen'.

* Toyota Burnaston, UK was the second most productive plant with an output of 86 cars per employee, highlighting the dominance of the Japanese car manufacturers.

Earlier this year Toyota announced its intention of moving production of the 3-door Corolla from Japan to the UK.

This would lead to a 50,000-unit increase in output in 2002.

* Renault topped the manufacturers' league with six out of the top 15 most productive plants surveyed, while Spanish car workers also showed high productivity with five of the twelve top plants surveyed.

* Honda's Swindon plant slipped from number two in the 1999 index to number 26 in 2000, with production falling from 83 cars per employee to 55.

The company attributes this partly to disruption following the full model change of the Civic 5-door and to the introduction of the CR-V.

Prospects for the plant have also been undermined by the company's decision to repatriate production of the Accord back to Japan, and by cancellation of an earlier plan for UK-build of the new small Logo/City range.

Honda will, however, add a second assembly line at Swindon from September this year.

* Based on the plants surveyed, productivity in Europe rose from a plant average of 52.6 cars per employee in 1997 to a record 60.1 in 1999.

However, in 2000 the car market weakened and manufacturers were slow to reduce their manufacturing headcount.

This caused a slight decline to an average of 58.8 cars per employee.

Forecasts of a further 5% drop in Europe's car market this year could put productivity under increased pressure.

Ian Robertson of World Markets Research Centre says: 'For the first time the report sees a UK plant competing with the top global performers.

A record of 165 cars per employee was set by Daewoo's Changwon plant in South Korea in 1998.

When the Global Index is issued later this year we will be able to see whether Nissan, Sunderland can outstrip all other plants.

What this year's index also shows is that intense competition is accelerating the adoption of new working practices to boost quality and efficiency.' About World Markets Automotive World Markets Automotive is the latest industry-specific intelligence service from World Markets Research Centre (WMRC plc).

World Markets Automotive provides: * in-depth reports on the automotive industry in over 50 countries; * company profiles on more than 60 light vehicle and heavy truck manufacturers and 100 component manufacturers; * same-day analysis on developments and events as they occur; * a global database of vehicle production and sales statistics (since 1990); and * industry forecasts for the next three years.

World Markets Research Centre provides business-critical analysis and information to businesses, governments and multinational organisations.

Its portfolio of industry-specific services includes World Markets Telecoms and World Markets Energy.

These are underpinned by the World Markets Country Analysis service that covers 185 countries.

WMRC subscribers are found in 35 countries and across 33 industry sectors and include companies from all aspects of the automotive industry.