Summer's not quite here, yet my travel has picked up a lot lately. In just the past six weeks, I've spent a few days with 200 retailers at Shop.org's Best Practices in Online Marketing workshop, a few days visiting with clients to help with some multichannel integration projects, and a few days at the Retail Systems show, meeting with vendors to stay on top of store technology innovations. I'm ready for some time in my garden.

Thankfully, my colleague Carrie Johnson has been keeping the home fires burning, and she's written some new multichannel retail research that you should read. For starters, she's discovered that 11% of online consumers now buy online then pick up in stores. And based on reports from retailers like Sears, Circuit City, and REI that have launched this service, we fully expect this trend to accelerate. Plus, as more shoppers shift to broadband, that 11% will grow rapidly. (If you missed our broadband retail series from 2003, it's not too late to catch up and figure out how broadband can change your multichannel business.)

Besides that cross-channel question, Carrie also gets questions from retailers about whether or not online product recommendations work. It turns out that more than half of online consumers are aware of recommendations, but 42% say they aren't interested in those recommendations. It looks like online merchandising still has a way to go before it catches up to the store merchandising experience.

And then there's me. As I said, I trolled through the Retail Systems show last week and learned a few interesting things. I'm fascinated by store transformations, and I saw a bunch of new smart screens that will eventually improve customer experience in all kinds of retail venues (grocery, specialty, department stores, hard goods, soft goods, c-stores, you name it). There's a great opportunity for retailers to pilot smart screens in their stores to find new ways to present relevant information and promotions to shoppers right at the decision point and to generate new revenue (per square foot!) from advertising sold through those screens. Check out "The Retail Point-Of-Service Transformation" and "Smart Screens Diversify In 2004" to get your wheels turning, as store reinvention seems like fertile ground for both retailers and vendors during the next few years.

I'm off to another client meeting -- so until next time, happy reading!



Kate Delhagen
Vice President, Retail Research


P.S. According to the The State of Retailing Online 7.0 report, which Forrester conducted on behalf of Shop.org, eight out of 10 retailers selling online are profitable . . . and many have double-digit margin. Who knew online retail could be a money-maker? This report is free to Shop.org members and available at the Shop.org Web site for nonmembers.

Research Referenced In This Issue Broadband Produces Smarter Shoppers (16343)    Defending Against Phishing Attacks (34448) ECM Vendors Are Missing The Boat (34482) Fear Of Debt Drives Debit Card Usage (34396) Is Your Brand Phishing Bait? (34447) Near-Term Growth Of Offshoring Accelerating (34426) Platform Giants Tackle RFID Middleware (34479) Retailer Online Recommendations Provide Limited Value To Consumers (34356) RFID Reader Incompatibilities Create Hurdles For Adoption (34228) SAP Brings Context Into Email Response Management (34451) Smart Screens Diversify In 2004 (34546) The Retail Point-Of-Service Transformation (33806)    What's Hot With Retail Digital Marketing? (34347) What's Wrong With Acquisition Marketing (34484) Who Uses The Buy Online, In-Store Pickup Feature? (34462)

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