SMALLER RETAILERS GET READY FOR A PIZZA THE ONLINE ACTION
These days, the appetite for e-shopping among consumers is so strong that it begs the question: is there really anything that people aren’t prepared to buy online anymore?
Shopping surfers are now so enthusiastic about purchasing everything from the comfort of their own PCs that many seem reluctant to even pause their sessions for a couple of minutes in order to phone for a pizza. That’s right – they are now more inclined to order the pizza online as well.
Certainly that’s what the latest figures from Domino’s Pizza indicate. The company’s online sales for takeaway pizza in the UK last year totalled a staggering £32.2m – up 60.5 per cent on the year before. In short, an increasing number of Domino’s customers now prefer to order their quattro formaggis via a website rather than pick up the phone. It’s a pattern that’s being repeated across almost every single sector and it proves how much the online world has become part of our everyday lives.
REVOLUTIONARY RE-THINK
What it also shows is that it can’t be too long before all sorts of retailers and other businesses, who‘d never before considered selling or servicing online, start to have a bit of a re-think. Indeed, there’s no reason why cobblers, fishmongers, bakers and candlestick makers should be excluded from the e-commerce revolution.
But so far it’s been the major brands and their big budgets that have benefited from this explosion in online spending. They’ve invested massively in their multi-channel strategies and in contact centres capable of dealing with customers. But as consumers demonstrate an increasing willingness to use new channels to make all sorts of micro and macro purchases, the opportunities for smaller businesses become more and more scalable and therefore more economically viable.
According to Terry Sansom, CRM Specialist at BT Wholesale, this is something that Communications Providers, particularly resellers, should take note of: "I believe we will see more and more SMEs demanding the types of CRM and online applications that have been previously only been available to larger organisations. I see this as a great opportunity for Communications Providers everywhere."