How online retailers can take advantage of the next ‘Big Freeze’
by Emma Beagrie
No matter how hard you may have tried, not many people managed to escape the ‘Big Freeze’ that hit Britain a couple of weeks ago. The whole country pretty much came to a standstill when snow and ice covered the UK, in what was some of the worst weather we’ve seen in thirty years.
Businesses and schools across the country were forced to close when roads became impassable and public transport ground to a halt. Even us hardy folk at Red C struggled to get into the office, with only those that come on foot making it here. With so many people off work, you’d have thought the high street would be bustling, but figures from Footfall indicate that shopper numbers on 5th January were down 13.5% on last year. 53 of the 285 stores in Meadowhall shopping centre, Sheffield were closed on this day, and The Trafford Centre in Manchester only managed to open half of its stores and restaurants - before closing the entire complex at 4pm.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom – the wintery weather did prove profitable for some high street stores. Halfords, for example, reported a significant rise in sales from shoppers needing car maintenance products like wiper blades and batteries, and shops selling snow essentials like sledges and snow shovels were also inundated with customers.
But the big winners were the online retailers. While most high street shops struggled to even open during the wintery
weather, web-based businesses saw a huge boost in sales. Shoppers who decided not to brave the wintery conditions went online instead, with supermarkets seeing one of the biggest surges as customers tried to stock up on essential items. The bad weather and driving conditions saw customers deciding to utilise the home delivery alternatives rather than venture out themselves. Other retailers also saw a leap in online sales. John Lewis saw an increase of 56% in the week ending 9th January, which helped to balance out disappointing high street figures that saw high street sales plummeting by up to 30%.
Auto Windscreens saw a 700% increase in online sales due to customers booking in cars for repairs while working from home – or possibly due to the number of cracked windscreens from people not heeding the warnings about pouring hot water on them!
But for many online retailers the snowy weather came as double edged sword as many struggled to cope with the additional demand on delivery and fulfilment. Supermarket groups battled to fulfil orders and resorted to hiring more vans and paying overtime to those drivers that could get into work. Tesco had to compensate customers for any orders not received and drafted in new drivers.
Problems on the roads affected the retailers as much as the general public, as un-gritted roads left delivery drivers stuck or unable to leave the depots. Many stores that should have been relishing in the increased sales were instead faced with a customer service nightmare.
So how could retailers have maximised on this change in shopping behaviour? Should they have continued to take orders when they knew that there would be issues with delivery? What can they do next time round? With global warming allegedly causing even more cases of extreme weather it is looking more likely that Britain will be once again brought to a standstill. And with snowed-in shoppers having little else to do, they’re sure to turn to the internet to get their shopping fix.
So here are my top tips to online retailers for coping with Britain’s next big freeze…
1. BE PREPARED!
With more cases of ‘freak’ weather likely to occur over the coming years, we are more likely to be faced with similar conditions to those we saw in early January. So retailers need to be proactive rather than reactive – if it looks like snow is on the way then prepare for it! Make sure there are enough delivery drivers available, have a contingency plan in place if you think that you may struggle with deliveries. Do you have extra staff that you can call on? Can you pay for overtime? Make the items that people are most likely to search for (hats, gloves, sledges, milk, bread etc) easy for customers to find and cross sell to other items that they might be interested in.
2. DON’T OFFER NEXT DAY DELIVERY!
If you don’t think you’re going to be able to deliver the next day, then don’t offer
it! Customers would rather you offer a longer delivery time (say 2-3 days) and actually deliver it on time, than offer something that’s not achievable.
3. OFFER DISCOUNTS FOR SLOW DELIVERY
Offer customers an incentive for waiting that little bit longer for their delivery – that way you still get their order and are more likely to be able to deliver it in the time you’ve specified.
4. AND IF ALL ELSE FAILS, GIVE IT AWAY…
If you’ve tried everything else and still think that you’re going to struggle to deliver, then offer delivery for free until the weather eases – that way, at least your customers aren’t paying for a less-than-guaranteed service. Or, if you can’t make a delivery, offer an incentive for the customer’s next order. That way you’re able to show them just what a great service you provide when things are running normally.
In short, the next ‘big freeze’ shouldn’t mean that your customers are left out in the cold when it comes to shopping online and if it does, well, let’s hope the summer’s a hot one!
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Tags: Award-winning agency, Big Freeze, Creative Marketing Agency, Customer service, Footfall, Home Delivery, Marketing Agency, Meadowhall Sheffield, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Online retailers, Online Shopping, Shopping from home, Snow, Social Shopping, The Trafford Centre, Web 2.0 Marketing
