Only channel is multichannel

The necessity of a serious multichannel business, if anyone doubted it, was starkly illustrated in Tuesday’s BRC sales figures for February.

The trade body reported that general merchandise sales over the internet, mail order or the phone showed their smallest gain since August 2009. But that surely isn’t the point.

Non-food, non-store sales put shops in the shade. They climbed 10.4% year on year, while retail overall suffered a 0.4% like-for-like decline.

When online retail started making an impact a few years ago, a rising tide was still lifting all boats and many shops continued to do well. Now things are different. Growing online sales will increasingly cannibalise retailers’ stores because consumer spend is being redistributed by channel rather than growing apace.

Only this week Oddbins became the latest retailer to scale back its store portfolio. The multichannel shift is evident in John Lewis’s weekly numbers too. Last week Johnlewis.com generated a sales uplift of 24.5%, but only three shops made it into double digits.

Stores will always have a place because of shoppers’ liking for services such as click-and-collect, but some retailers will take a tumble as their online businesses pull the carpet from under their stores.

Phil Clarke’s Tesco

New Tesco boss Phil Clarke has made very clear that he is no Terry Leahy mini-me. That’s not to say Tesco won’t remain a lean, customer-obsessed machine but there may be greater openness that could disarm the critics of ‘Tescopoly’ through candour.

He made his presence felt on day one with an introductory video on Tesco.com and you can follow him on Twitter - @clarkepatesco. Leahy was always going to be a hard act to follow but Clarke has moved quickly to establish himself as a new, different leader.

Follow George on Twitter @georgemacd