E-Commerce in London: Silver Bullet for Retail?

Recession is very common phenomenon for any economy in the run. But, survival of business is inevitable despite odds against. Only smarter Companies survive with sound strategy till better times to come. Idea of this post is to bring some facts & trends to the table that help Retail & SMB segments even in tough times.

Below inputs are captured by me from thousands of Retail & SMB business Owners during my sales calls/studies conducted in London, UK.

My Study reveals:

• My coverage includes Retail/SMB business Owners (B2C) across London
• Some of the locations include (but not limited to) - Hayes, Southall, Seven Sisters, Uxbridge, Ealing, Croydon, Hillindon, Harrow, Wembley, Hounslow, Oxford Circus, Picadilly Circus, Ilford etc.,
• Retail is one of the worst hit verticals in London during recession
• Over 90 % respondents acknowledge the importance of e-Commerce for additional revenues
• Around 70 % believe - only way to survive in touch times is e-Commerce adoption for Retail
• E-Commerce can't be ignored due to its high growth than traditional retail
• SMB and retail market is desperately looking for fool-proof e-commerce system
• Retailers are deeply concerned about cyber security and spoofing
• Few revealed (~ 5%) that they already lost money in cyber frauds
• 'Cash on delivery' (COD) is a hassle, risky and not apt for all the categories
• Keen desire to go for e-Commerce is very high across all the segments
• Not the first on the cards - third party e-Commerce solutions due to expensive
• Ready to launch and self-manage large product catalog for additional revenues
• Interested to spend time and money on deals like daily, group, combo etc.,for better traction
• Inclined more towards neighborhood deals for better hit rate
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing(SMM), Social Commerce (SC) are in the agenda as per the order
• Open for Cloud & ASP models for lower risk, hassle and easy exit
• Investing on additional Hardware like Biometric Sensors, Servers etc., is of very low interest
• In M-Commerce, Biometric authentication on Mobile or tablet is most preferred choice for ease of use
• Biometric spoofing is real concern, thus - looking for fool-proof system
• Open for any kind of Biometric system - Fingerprint, Face, Iris etc.,
• Time, economics & convenience are the key drivers for click & mortar
• Lack of knowledge, cyber security, cost of implementation are the challenges for adoption
• All Retailers admit : Initial couple of years - real acid test for survival

Any thoughts or views? You are most welcome.

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