eBay exposes the secret truth behind 95% of online sales

You might not expect a company like eBay to talk about the value of maintaining physical stores, but that just proves its research on omni-channel retailing is worth paying attention to.

Watch this short clip to hear Patrick Munden, head of retail marketing at eBay Europe, discuss findings of a survey the company commissioned with consulting firm Deloitte the shopping habits across the Web, apps, and other channels. Although the focus here was on Germany and the U.K., it sounds like many of the same learnings could apply here in Canada.

For Munden, the big finding was that 95 percent of online sales are in addition to offline sales. It’s a good reminder that omni-channel retailing is about transcending the “either/or” mentality of prioritizing e-commerce over traditional approaches to serving customers, for example. It’s about maintaing a consistent brand experience wherever the customer touchpoints are and focusing on things like expedited delivery of goods to customers. That may seem daunting to some retailers, but technology has reached a point where you no longer have to be as big as eBay to get it right.

For a deeper dive, visit Enabling Omni-Channel Effectiveness in Retail & Financial Services, a resource centre from Allstream.