Toys, Footwear and Fashion are the Retail sectors with the greatest presence in eCommerce, as shown by the First Digital Retail Study presented by IAB Spain, the Association of advertising, marketing and digital communication in Spain, carried out in collaboration with Corpora360, specialists in mobile commerce solutions for the Retail sector.
The study analyzes the most representative brands in the Spanish retail market, their service offerings in the physical and digital channel (desktop and mobile), and its commercial adaptation to new devices such as smartphones, tablets or phablets. To do this, 119 brands from the 10 main Retail sectors with an online presence were selected, taking into account their sales figures, awareness and presence. fashion It turned out to be the sector with the most weight, as well as footwear and accessories.
Conclusions of the First Digital Retail Study
Online vs physical store
Retail companies are adopting global criteria, linking their strategies and functional organization to traditional and online sales. According to the study, 82% of companies have an online store. This figure amounts to 88% in the brands of Spanish origin (which represent the 62% of the sample).
Among the sectors with the greatest presence in digital sales channels, the following stand out:
- Toy store: el 100% of the brands studied have an online store.
- Footwear: el 95% of the brands studied have an online store.
- Fashion: el 93% of the brands studied have an online store.
Optimization of the shopping experience
The study identifies 11 common features on retail sector websites. The product search bar It is the most widespread, present in the 83% of the portals. This is followed by “cross-selling” or recommendations of related products (66%). The “recently viewed” functionality takes up the third placea 47% of implementation.
However, they persist improvement areas. Only the 15% of the brands allow you to check online the availability in physical stores and only a 3% offers the option to reserve products online.
Regarding the use of Social Media, 86% of the brands offer options to share products on social networks such as Facebook (77%), Twitter (61%), Pinterest (39%) and Google+ (39%), in addition to email (33%).
Click&collect, webrooming and services under the “Bricks & Clicks” concept are gaining ground within omnichannel strategies. Within this approach, companies such as Pull&Bear, Mango, G-Star, Uterque, Mayoral, Decathlon, Fnac and Prenatal stand out. However, only Fnac and Prenatal offer online reservation and in-store collection.
Delivery and return
The time of delivery In Spain it is faster than in the United States: close to 70% of the brands deliver orders in less than 3 days, compared to just the 8% in the US. In addition, the 58% They offer premium services such as in-store pickup or express shipping. However, the free shipping It is available only in the 12% of the cases.
Furthermore, the 39% of brands allows free returns, with Fashion, Mass Distribution and Sports leading in this category. This represents a important incentive for consumers, who value simple and economical return policies.
Communication
El 31% of the brands communicates promotions directly on their websites, with offers for online stores (96%) much more frequent than those for physical stores (36%). As for dissemination channels, newsletters are the most used format (77%), followed by blogs (45%) and interactive chats (8%).
mobile commerce
El 52% of the brands studied have native applications, although only the 21% allows online purchases from these platforms. In addition, only the 21% of online stores are adapted with responsive design, which demonstrates a critical area for improvement.
The sectors most adapted to mobile are:
- Large distribution: 86%.
- Toy store: 80%.
- Fashion: 77%.
- Accessories: 64%.
The experts speak
FOR Anthony Traugott, General Director of IAB Spain, "The off - on strategy is imposed as the new trend in Retail, undoubtedly one of the levers of the economy, although we observe that there is still a lot of room for innovation and growth".
According to Xavier Clarke, Director of Mobile, Innovation and New Media, “The low presence of e-commerce on mobile is striking, where there is also more emphasis on apps than on mobile or responsive websites, which should already be common. There is also a lot of room for growth for Digital Signage in physical stores, a demand from the users themselves.”
Lastly, Florence Revilla, commercial manager of Corpora360, says that “Brands are aware of the existence of the hyper-connected customer. The shopping experience must be uniform and coherent across any channel, whether in a physical store, on a PC, tablet or smartphone.”
eCommerce in Spain is evolving rapidly, driven by Technological advances y changes in consumer habitsThe integration between the physical and digital world is presented not only as a challenge, but as an essential opportunity for business growth.
For more information, you can view and download the full study this article.