CREATION - Pure plays must extend site appeal

Pure play retailers should look at increasing their competitiveness

among a mature audience to counter the rising number of Internet users

who are spending more time and money at websites of established bricks

and mortar businesses.

"The 35-49-year-old age group is apparently reluctant to use

non-established brands, so for pure plays, the lesson must be to find

ways to expand their appeal to this group," said Nielsen//NetRatings

Global Analytical Services spokesman Brian Milnes.

"For example, Amazon has become a major online retailer by creating a

clean, easy-to-use and easy-to-search online environment and then adding

user-specific features.

"User reviews and wish lists which create the site's sense of community

are very much secondary to the simplicity of purchasing from the

site."

Traditional retailers that take their business to the Web must recreate

the brand's key selling points online, he said.

Mr Milnes also recommended that they take advantage of the Internet's

possibility for research and "bearing in mind that customers who visit

and don't buy are far less of a wasted effort for clicks-and-mortar

sites than for pure plays".

As established retailers are only beginning to realise their online

potential, he said click and mortar brands that succeeded this year were

likely to be businesses that used their online channels to "increase

customer loyalty to the integrated brand".