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Retailers Must Improve Mobile Shopping Experience
New research has found that if brands want to remain competitive they will need to keep up with the growing mobile commerce expectations held by their consumers.
Stibo Systems annual consumer retail survey reported that 40% of respondents use a mobile device to make purchases, an increase of 10% from last year. This data was supported by another study performed by Gartner, which estimated that by 2016, there will have been a global increase in tablets by 655 million.
Mark Thorpe, UK managing director at Stibo said: “In producing a year-on-year survey comparison, it is evident that mobile is a key part of a retailer’s multichannel strategy,” said Thorpe.
“Retailers must pay attention to this if they are to continue to ensure customer satisfaction throughout the overall shopping experience.”
While the laptop is still the preferred method by 66% for online shopping, smartphone and tablet devices have grown to be the favourite method of online shopping among 20% of online shoppers.
“As the use of mobile devices becomes more ubiquitous in today’s world, it becomes crucial for retailers to meet customers’ rising expectations surrounding m-commerce,” said Mark Thorpe, UK managing director at Stibo.
The survey, however, found a drop in customer satisfaction when shopping on smartphones and tablets. Overall, only 25% of respondents reporting being satisfied with their mobile retail experience. The research suggests that retailers must create a well-rounded data management and multi-channel strategy to ensure customer interaction and satisfaction.
Click here for tips on improving customer satisfaction on mobile devices.
TweetSlow-loading Sites Cost Retailers £1.73 Billion in Lost Sales
Slow page loading speeds cost online retailers more than £1.7 billion in lost sales according to a new study from online customer data platform QuBit.
According to QuBit, in the UK, the online sector makes up around 7% of total GDP. Website sales totalled £68.2 billion in 2011. Based on 60,000 individual pieces of customer feedback, the research has led QuBit to conclude that slow sites cost online retailers globally more than £1.7 billion.
QuBit says eCommerce businesses should have a need for speed if they want to improve customer retention. A faster loading page will increase traffic and reduce abandonment.
Graham Cooke, CEO of QuBit said: “Site speed is one of the most fundamental measures of a site’s performance so it’s surprising to see so many major retailers falling down in this area.
“The numbers revealed by this research are even more troubling when you bear in mind the expected rate of growth for online retail. Based on current predictions, if retailers fail to act on poor site speeds it could be costing them more than £4 billion in just 18 months.”
According to the research 8% of consumers cited slow loading pages as a key reason for abandoning their purchase. This follows from research from Postcode Anywhere which investigated the top three reasons for cart abandonment.
QuBit also highlights the fact that consumers are becoming increasingly more impatient.
In 2006, the average user would be happy if a page took around 4 seconds to load, but by 2009 these expectations had halved to 2 seconds. Whilst the 2012 value remains unknown, Google suggests that any site taking longer than 1.5 seconds to load is ‘slow’ and will consequently be relegated within their search engine ranking.
TweetHuman Error Biggest Cause of Data Breaches
Human error is now the biggest cause of data breaches, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The figures, published by security firm ViaSat following a Freedom of Information Act request, found that the largest proportion of data breaches were simply down to information being disclosed to the wrong address.
An alarming total of 730 data breaches were reported in the last year, the report found. 281 of these were a result of human error, with councils comprising the personal data of individuals by sending out letters to the wrong households.
The biggest offender was local government, whose 88 incidents of human error accounted for 53% of all its self-reported data breaches.
ViaSat representative Chris McIntosh said the findings are a real concern.
“It is wholly disconcerting that those data breaches which should be easily avoidable are now the most commonplace,” he remarked.
Only yesterday it was reported how the personal data of 38,000 London Marathon were accidentally published on the event’s public website.
“While the message on data protection may be getting through to the heads of organisations, there is no point in having these measures in place if workers don’t follow them,” Mr McIntosh added.
“The fact that local government organisations are the worst offenders helps explain why the ICO has been imposing so many financial penalties on this sector, perhaps in an effort to get the message through. However, the true extent of the problem may be even greater.”
Click here to find out how address management can be improved.
TweetIncreased International Interest in UK Retail
A new research form the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that overseas shoppers are showing growing interest in UK retail.
The latest BRC-Google Online Retail Monitor found that retail search volumes from international consumers rose by 57% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the previous year.
Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, argues the increase in people from overseas searching for goods from British shops could mark a potential route towards economic growth in the retail sector. He said: “The number of overseas consumers searching for UK retailers has soared 57% for this quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.
“Internet search traffic from developing countries like Mexico and Pakistan has more than doubled. These statistics demonstrate the growth potential of online for UK retailers and the part retail can play in building a recovery based on exports, given the right conditions and a genuinely free-trade world market place.”
According to the report, the increasing ubiquity of smartphones and tablets helped to contribute to the boost in total retail search volumes.
Peter Fitzgerald, Retail Director, Google, said: “The first quarter of 2012 provided more evidence of the growing importance of mobile. While overall retail queries grew 11% year-on-year, mobile experienced exponential growth, growing 132% year-on-year in Q1.”
Click here for useful tips on how etailers can cash in on mobile commerce.
TweetHalf of Businesses Clouded in Confusion
Over half of businesses are missing out on the benefits of cloud computing, as the technology is still something of a mystery to them, a new report has found.
BMO Financial Group released the results of a study, which found over 50% of Canadian companies do not understand what cloud computing is.
BMO describes cloud computing as a rapidly growing technology that offers storage, computing capacity and shared software. Bal Sahjpaul director of eChannel for BMO Financial Group explained, “The advantage of cloud computing for business owners is that it can help avoid major capital expenditures on hardware, software and other services, with their businesses paying only for what they use.”
According to the study, only 10% of companies currently plan to invest in the technology in the near future. The remaining 40% of businesses indicated no immediate plans to use cloud computing whatsoever. This contradicts last week’s study from IDG Enterprise which found two-thirds of businesses are expecting to increase cloud spending in the next year.
BMO noted that businesses should be looking to eventually make the transition into the cloud, as it can allow owners and executives to lower IT spending.
Shahjpaul added, “This service model can also lower overall IT costs, while giving businesses access to valuable analytics, productivity and collaboration tools.”
Lower operating costs, especially in regard to technology and the consolidation of business infrastructure, will enable companies sustain long-term growth.
TweetCouncil Probes Data Quality Blunder
Devon County Council said it is investigating a data quality error that caused confidential details about colleagues’ salaries to appear on payslips, in what workers have dubbed a “shocking breach of data protection.”
Thousands of employee pay packets, sent last week, listed the correct name and address on the front, but another person’s confidential information on the reverse. In one case, it is understood that a wage slip received in error gave details of the amount a worker was having deducted from their salary to pay court fines.
One employee, who works within the council’s library system, claimed: “All of my colleagues have been sent the wrong details, but I’ve also spoken to people in other departments in the same situation, so I suspect it’s across the board.
“It is really concerning. Everybody has been asked to send them back. In terms of data protection it is a massive error. We want to know how on earth this could have happened.”
The council confirmed the embarrassing breach of data protection affected employees across the whole of Devon in various departments including teachers, cleaners and waste services, but that the actual transfer of salaries to people’s bank accounts has not been affected.
A spokesman for the county council said staff receiving the incorrect information have been asked to return the payslips.
TweetLost Data Costing Firms £79 per Record
The cost per record lost in a data breach is 68% higher than it was five years ago, costing firms £79 per affected record, according to new research.
The 2011 UK Annual Study by security vendor Symantec examined data breach costs incurred by 36 UK companies across 11 different industries. For the fifth year in a row the pre-record cost of lost or stolen data has increased, up by £8 from 2010.
Symantec noted that negligence remains the primary cause of data breaches, with 36% caused by mistakes by employees or contractors.
Mike Jones, senior product marketing manager, Symantec commented: “We’ve shifted to an age where data breaches are now just a common occurrence. As such, UK consumers have become somewhat desensitised to data losses, but that doesn’t mean that businesses should become complacent.
“The cost of data loss still remains high and, in tighter economic times, even a single digit increase in customer churn can be terminal to profitability.”
While the cost of breaches has gone up, the actual direct organisational costs to businesses had decreased from £1.9 million in 2010 to £1.75 million in 2011.
Jones suggested this was because companies at risk of data loss are becoming wise to the financial impact of a data breach.
TweetThe flexibility offered by cloud computing technology is enabling businesses to operate in new ways, according to one industry expert.
Dr Graeme Codrington, speaker at Tomorrow Today, a firm that looks into the future of IT, believes that organisations are now doing a trio of things when implementing a cloud-based service into the their IT operations.
“Cloud computing is an umbrella term that applies to a lot of things, people are using it for so many different things,” said Codrington.
“It relates to our ability to take functionality off of our local computers and put it onto a remote computer. There are three different levels at which people are using it,” he added.
Firstly, as an operating system, “which basically turns your computer into the old system of a dozen terminals, where pretty much all of the functionality of the computer is on the cloud on a remote machine.”
Next is the purchasing of software over the internet. For example Google Documents, that allows the use of word processing system with an internet browser.
Lastly, the most common usage of cloud computing is data storage and recovery. This may be carried out to back it up or share it with other people so that it can be used collaboratively.
The expert noted sharing data using the cloud has surged in usage in recent times and although enterprises may have had a slightly “rocky start” with the technology, any problems are being smoothed over and they are embracing the idea. This has been confirmed by IBM who suggest that the number of enterprises using cloud computing will double in the next three years.
TweetThe rise in cloud computing services is expected to create over 14 million new jobs globally by 2015, according to a report produced for Microsoft Corp commissioned by analyst research firm IDC.
According to the report, most of the jobs will come as companies shift from maintaining their own computer servers toward cloud services, which allow access to enterprise software and data via the Internet.
The research predicts that revenues from the technology could reach as much as $1.1 trillion per year by 2015.
“For most organisations, cloud computing should be a no-brainer, given its ability to increase IT innovation and flexibility, lower capital costs, and help generate revenues that are multiples of spending,” said John F Gantz, chief research officer and senior vice president at IDC.
“A common misperception is cloud computing is a job eliminator, but in truth it will be a job creator – a major one. And job growth will occur across continents and throughout organisations of all sizes because emerging markets, small cities and small businesses have the same access to cloud benefits as large enterprises or developed nations.”
The report also highlights that specific industries will generate job growth at different rates, and that public cloud investments will drive faster job growth than private cloud investments.
This follows from a report at the beginning of the year indicating a 61% year-on-year increase in jobs requesting cloud computing skill requirements.
TweetA recent business intelligence survey from MorganFranklin Corporation has revealed that data quality and data integration were considered top priorities for businesses.
The survey conducted business priorities from respondents in a wide variety of industries in the public sector, financial services, telecom, and professional services.
Data quality or data integration was listed as a top priority, with more than 80% of survey respondents calling them “important or critical” for business intelligence. In blog post MorganFranklin stated that these results did not come as a surprise given the regulatory environment. They go to explain that government regulations have dramatically increased and companies have had to invest in tools to ensure reported information is accurate and meets compliance standards.
Budgeting, planning and forecasting solutions were the second highest priority for respondents, reflecting the need to have integrated systems that can deal with more than one data problem.
According to Bill Brydges, managing director of MorganFranklin’s Performance Improvement practice, unlocking “big-dollar secrets hidden in big-data environments” is what companies are looking for in terms of return on investment.
The survey found that 75% of respondents plan to maintain or increase their business intelligence budgets this year, in attempt to improve their data quality, managerial procedures and improve decision making.
Top priorities today reinforce that data quality remains the biggest impediment to the success of Business Intelligence solutions.
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