Make Digital Marketing Work

There is no escaping the fact that we live in uncertain times, and as a humble agency we try to stay abreast of all the issues that might affect us.  We need to make decisions and predictions and so we do, but try not to bet the farm on something that could go against us and bring the whole world crashing down about us.

One thing is for sure and that the world is moving and turning and changing at a pace that is likely to catch anyone out at the moment if they are not very careful and even if they are you can still find yourself with a prime set of incisors lodged in your rear end.  Yesterday was one of those days and our thoughts are with those affected as various announcements caused global concern on the financial markets and another high street retailer went into administration.

It was only a few weeks ago that I was talking about Book publishing and made the statement that “shares in Waterstones are safe for the minute”.  I didn’t consider Border’s Books and that might be the problem.  Online retail has reached a pivotal moment of preference for consumers and there are at least two brands that most people have considered ‘first’ when it comes to online book retail.  For companies that are left with a predominantly store retail model, Christmas has been a saviour each year to keep the wolf from the door.  It is probably a combination of shifting purchase points to online and a less extravagant Christmas brought on by the prevailing economic conditions but I can’t help feeling that organisations who do only bet on physical stores for retail are going to find it harder and harder.  Certain items such as perishables will naturally appeal to the senses of touch and smell and therefore are not as close to the front line as those which have a shelf life but the writing is on the wall.  It is no longer a case of online being a risk, it is now a case that ignoring online or treating it as an ancillary channel is probably the riskiest strategy of all.

Could this be the last Christmas where we viewed online as anything other than the primary retail channel?

Tags: Book publishing, Book retail, books, Borders, Borders Books, Christmas Retail, etail, Offline retail, Online retail, purchase points, Retail

Friday, November 27th, 2009 • Offline Media, Strategy, ecommerce