Greetings from my home office in Portland, Ore. (formerly one of the top 20 most wired cities in the US, but currently in a funk).

We had just finished the first piece of research in our series about The Changing Consumer in July when it dawned on me: I'm living proof that multichannel behaviors are the new norm. Consider that I spent my summer:

Catching up on movies. When my aging Sony set blew up in the spring, I bought a Panasonic plasma TV from Magnolia Hi-Fi -- after seeing it advertised in its Sunday circular, then visiting the local Best Buy (limited selection), and checking prices online (DealTime). That cross-channel shopping triumph quickly snowballed into a full-blown home-theater project, which also meant buying some new furnishings, both locally and online, and succumbing to NetFlix's introductory offer. After three months of nonstop DVDs, I've caught up on Oscar winners from the past decade and seen some great indie films. The best movie so far? "Rabbit Proof Fence" -- which I loved so much that I bought the soundtrack from Amazon.com.

Cooking. I love watching "The Barefoot Contessa" on the Food Network -- so much so that I now watch TV (see above) on Saturdays. And every now and then, I see something on a show that I absolutely have to cook. A few weeks ago it was Thai food. So like millions of other broadband consumers who zip between TV shows and Web sites, I printed out some recipes and headed to Uwajimaya, the local Asian grocery store. It's an excellent regional retailer with an eye-popping selection, but almost every product label is in an Asian language. And because I don't read any Asian languages, it dawned on me while searching for sesame paste that perhaps this is how it feels to be one of the nearly 35 million Hispanic consumers in the US trying to find items in an English-language retail world. An eye-opening experience indeed, but thankfully the Uwajimaya store clerk came to my rescue, and dinner turned out OK.

Traveling. Because my team works in Cambridge, Mass., and San Francisco, and our clients are all over the place, I log some serious miles. Each time I need to travel, I do what most travelers -- but especially mercenary travelers -- do: I search for airfares at two or three sites -- usually Orbitz, Expedia, and UAL.com (United's big in Portland) -- then buy online. At airports, I prefer self-service kiosks to lines, and for travel-day service, I'm a big fan of flight status alerts -- especially since an Orbitz alert saved me a huge hassle one bad O'Hare day. I've also put UAL's customer service number on my cell phone, and I've called many times to tweak plans. You may be thinking, geez, that's costing the airline some money. Not really. Because I fly so often, and because more often than not United takes care of me, it maintains my loyalty in most situations. (See, there are still some loyal customers out here -- you just gotta know how to serve us across channels.)

Getting some R&R. Not "rest and relaxation" but "running and retinas." I needed new running shoes and bought them online as I usually do, since I know what model works for me (sporting goods are yet another example of a fast-growing eCommerce category -- which reminds me, have you seen Amazon's newest tab?). But the other "R" proved more challenging. I received an email from my usual supplier, 1-800 CONTACTS, reminding me to replace my contact lenses, and when I clicked the "reorder" link, I was stymied by a message saying "Model discontinued. See your eye doctor." Harrumph. I guess waiting two years between appointments is a bad idea. So I called 1-800 CONTACTS to see if it could send a substitution. It said that I needed to see my eye doctor for a new prescription -- so I did. But this little cross-channel story doesn't stop here. Turns out that Costco sells my new lenses for a better price (and I love Costco), so the well-intentioned personalized email from 1-800 CONTACTS actually cost it my business. Just one more example of how hard it can be to master multichannel retailing.

That was just this summer, and I'm just one person! If my experiences are any indication of things to come, businesses must act now to retool strategies and technologies to satisfy the first wave of truly multichannel consumers -- because the really big crowd is not far behind.



Kate Delhagen
Consumer Markets Research Director

P.S. Want to hear more mad, mad multichannel stories? It's not too late to register for Forrester's Consumer Forum, which takes place in New York City from September 21 to 23.

Research Referenced In This Issue Analyzing Sam's Club, Costco, And BJ's Shoppers (16546) Benchmark June 2003 Data Overview: Covers Forecasts, Devices, Broadband, Online Activities, Telecom, Finance, And Retail (16730) Blackout Illustrates Technology's Importance To Airlines (32290) Brands Don't Matter To Web's Mercenary Travelers (16915) Build A Better CPG Web Site To Boost Offline Sales (16816) Multichannel Best Practices: Sears And REI (15485) Online Credit Card Security Confidence Erodes (17220) Q2 2003 Online Sales: Same (Old) Growth Story (17238) RIP: The Online Consumer, 1998 To 2003 (17225) Shopping With Flash: Finally, A Smart Cart (32247) The Increasing Significance Of Price Over Brand (17197) US eCommerce Overview: 2003 To 2008 (16875) Web Sites Continue To Fail The Usability Test (17226) Where The Wired Live In America: 1998 To 2003 (32244)

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