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".
