I Think, Maybe I'll Knock On The Door, And You Won't Be There.

#ecommerce Paula Abdul once sang "I take two steps forward, I take two steps back" and it is how it feels reading the latest RetailX Europe top 100 360 degree look across Brands and their performance. A timely check in before we hit peak (or has that happened?). And for what it is worth, peak is going to be condensed. Amazon, our bellweather, much like Punxatawny Phil tell us to expect a short winter, but with not much sun on the horizon. So, what can we do?

Get your house in order.

Some of the things that I found interesting in my TL:DR version are that is somewhat contradictory to conventional wisdom - but there that is not the full picture.

For context, and this is helpful, they break this into some dimensions for us as ever:

The Customer Value Chain

The Product Value Chain

The Supply Chain Value Chain

The Operations Value Chain

The Capital Value Chain

They also give us the context and different across: Brand <> Retailer <> Marketplace.

Lets start at the Capital Value Chain - this, is formative.

The more channels retailers sell through, the more choices their customers have about how to buy and the more opportunity they have to use multichannel services. I reported this with my FDX whitepaper.

But from a retail perspective, the store network is important.

The average retailer selling to Europe has 352 stores, while the median – or halfway point – retailer has 24.?APPs have become increasingly important to try and get retention. But I think this is an uphill battle. The average Android app selling to Europe is downloaded 112,000 times from the Google Play Store, while the median app is downloaded 5,980 times.?This number drops to about 2,200 in the UK - this, as I said is agressive and tough place to play, technical hard and requires different marketing. Is it worth it?

The Operations Value Chain

Among Top1000 brands delivering to Europe, 15% have a blanket free delivery policy. You do not need free shipping as standard.

That minimum order value is an average of €72.30 when selling to Europe, while the median retailer offers free delivery when shoppers spend €49.60.?

Next-day delivery is available from 24% of retailers selling to Europe, a service that’s most available when selling to the UK (37%), Ireland (23%). This is going to change in 2025. 54% of retailers selling to Europe offer customers the option of collecting their online order. And the average cost of delivery if €2.78.

But, where we see these contradictions I mentioned.

Free shipping. Handled above.

We need better selected lists of products. What about curation? What about curation? It is actually more Kanye West then you think - product sets, some advice - Work it, make it, do it, makes you Harder, better, faster, stronger

1. Less products in more channels?
2. AI and Live chat to reduce CS costs?
3. Lots of Images sells products?
4. 1 click checkout as Utopia?

Let's dig in a little bit.

More channels = Greater market share according to the report. This is true for brands more than retailers. So your demand generation strategy should be considering channels. Questions you need to ask yourself - Where do I start? What platforms make since? Can I fulfill their requirements for success.

But, as I learned with Feedonomics, channels themselves provide growth, almost by participating. That is when the work starts. Optimization on product title alone can result in a 17% increase in conversion.

Live Chat is available within 1 min of landing on a site in only 2% of instances - this most likely means well considered Live Chat considerations. What do I mean? Consider live chat and its capabilities. You have a technical product and you can see that a common behavior is for a potential customer to view mutiple pages, dwell for more than 4 mins on a product page (if they can find it) and then leave. You have a chance to engage them, ask if there is a problem. Live chat is not always a founder message, a roulette wheel or some other reason to hate a brand.

But, we are told AI and Livechat reduce admin - 2% says the customer service unions are doing their jobs and keepin' it old school.

On average only 4 images per product are being used. Is this why conversion rates are lower in the EU?

Don't worry, this is a short post. Or at least started as one.

72% of consumers surveyed as part of this said that they wanted retailers to beahve in a more environmentally way. And 60% of that group said they would pay more to help get them there. Imagine your #BFCM marketing centered around keeping prices high to be more environmentally friendly? Who is brave enough to try that in peak 24?

Remember, this Black Friday, Simon Sinek is wrong.

Purpose based marketing will not work for most - Why does not matter.

What, does. And it seems reatilers agree with me.

Only 6% of retailers have a team/people dedicated to CSR.

The rest is, as they say, greenwashing. Or aspirational at best. I understand how hard it is. But if it is that hard, well then, is it possible at all. Only 8% of those sites selling to the EU have stated CSR policies that can be referenced. Sustainability and all its requirements will become fully regulated and a tax honey trap in time. There is no other way.

And now for some words from their sponsors.

Some takeaways from the bit you might ignore. These are things you can try to impact your peak, for the better. Remeber a trend is not a shift, so might be worth your time.

Charlie Bell Put a stake into social commerce.

Social commerce is on the rise, with platforms like Instagram and TikTok becoming significant discovery and purchasing channels.

Mirakl were a little to salesy here. But worth noting how much of the marketplace market they are in that they can put such small effort into a big message - and still make quite a lot of sense. If you build it, they just might come.

A brief lesson in knowing your customer by Julia Jansen Travel and Entertainment (along sides sports) has devliered some of the best use cases for tech out there - but it comes from an understanding the need state and a highly captive audience.

Investing in technology-driven travel and expense solutions not only modernises processes but also supports companies in achieving f inancial prudence, operational efficiency, and environmental responsibility.

And unlike Retail, they can do the following.

Tech-first travel solutions, companies can track, measure, and report on their carbon footprint using standardised reporting systems and encourage travellers to book more eco-consciously. This helps organisations make significant progress with their sustainability initiatives.

This report again paints the EU as a complex beast. Rich in opportunity but held back by history. Clinging onto versions of the past are challenging when we try to move forwards. (2 steps forward and all that).

From the Report - Some verbatim.

Europe is economically stable, albeit with slight fluctuations as a result of external factors that impact global financial conditions and trading. 27 countries are members of the European Union, the world’s largest single trading market. A further three countries are members of the wider European Economic Area. At €56,937, GDP per capita is almost three times the global average and it has been growing at an increasingly greater rate than the global figure. In 2021, the global GDP per capita was €16,639, with Europe at €49,638 and a gap of €32,999. By 2023, the gap had increased to €37,570.

An increasing number of those people who use the internet are also shopping online. For example, in Germany, where the percentage of the population that uses the internet is higher than the European average, 80.57% of the population also shopped online in 2023. Germany is a particularly mature ecommerce market but it does highlight some of the conditions that have challenged retailers in Europe in recent years.

Regulation to me, still stands as the key lever to change here. We will be beholden to what happens. This is currently being drawn up. But we can see some interesting maturity stats here. Defined as:

E-Government Development Index: “Along with an assessment of the website development patterns in a country, the E-Government Development index incorporates the access characteristics, such as the infrastructure and educational levels, to reflect how a country is using information technologies to promote access and inclusion of its people.

So the next big impact we are ignoring. Watch that space.

There is, as ever, a tonne in this report and alot more to report on. From me, watch this space for a follow on focused on

Country reports

Marketplace/Retailer profiling.

What started out as a short post meandered and grew.

Sorry. But thanks to Mark Pigou and Ian Jindal and your team. Really love these reports.