Forrester Research: Forrester Retail Insights Retail First Look: Research & Event Highlights From Forrester

 11 Dec. 2002
CEO Comment
"Sears.com is profitable as a standalone channel, and it's very profitable when coupled with its impact on the stores."
(Alan Lacy, CEO of Sears)


Upcoming Research
Mid-December:
Carrie Johnson's "Retail Digital Marketing Best Practices" report

Jim Crawford's "Content Management For Retailers" brief with the Forrester Wave™


Where You Can Find Us
January 12 to 15: NRF's Big Show and Shop.org Members' Forum

Stop by the Show to hear Chris Kelley talk about multichannel shoppers at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, January 13.


Strategic Services
Ask us about the Retail COMPASS -- our new service that provides a competitive assessment of offline and online shoppers for 27 retail brands, from Amazon.com and Best Buy to Target and Wal-Mart.

Get an expert evaluation of your Web site. Ask for one of Forrester's retail analysts to review your site -- including its cross-channel features.


Stores remain the most well-liked channel -- but the Web is coming on strong
Stores remain the most well-liked channel -- but the Web is coming on strong

Search
Search Forrester's Web site.

 

Introducing Forrester's Retail First Look Newsletter

Welcome to Retail First Look, a newsletter designed to highlight our recent and upcoming research about the retail industry. We'll publish Retail First Look regularly in 2003. If there are other people in your organization who should receive Retail First Look, they can subscribe via the link to our email subscriptions page below.



We've almost finished our holiday shopping, and despite the sluggish economy, we're having fun. Why? Because like millions of others, we're doing a lot of our shopping online at Amazon.com and eBay -- who are now officially "shopping portals" -- witness Amazon's apparel mini-mall and eBay's Buy It Now offerings. We expect these two heavyweights to steal even more business from AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! in 2003.

Selling To Mainstream Consumers But enough about us early adopters -- we're already in your databases. What about the 50 million mainstream US households who visit your stores -- and your sites? They represent nearly half of all retail dollars in the US, and 69% of these middle-income households are online, compared with 77% of upper-income households. So if you want to grow your business online or offline in 2003, read Chris Kelley's report "Selling To Mainstream Consumers" to learn how to push consumers' shopping hot buttons.

And speaking of the masses, we're still placing bets on when Wal-Mart might become the first $1 trillion retailer. If you compete against Wal-Mart (and we think everyone does -- especially with a slumping economy), check out Christine Overby's report "Winning In A Wal-Mart World." Find out how Wal-Mart pushes its suppliers to adopt Internet data standards like UCCnet, which in turn help the behemoth keep inventory in stock and prices an average 10% lower than competitors.

Finally, you'll get a lump of coal if you don't read Jim Crawford's new report "Multichannel Best Practices: Sears And REI." These companies set the bar high: Both allow offline returns of online orders, which only 54% of the top 100 retailers currently do. And both plan and prioritize technology investments with cross-departmental teams. The result? Their dot-com operations are profitable and are even more so when accounting for offline sales and overall business contributions. To compare yourself to these leaders and set your 2003 priorities, download our customizable scorecards.

So that's it for now -- have a great holiday season, and I hope to see you at the NRF/Shop.org events in January!

Kate Delhagen
Retail & CPG Research Director

P.S. Tell me what's on your mind heading into 2003 by replying to this email address.

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