The fact that multichannel supplements and articles are a regular feature across a variety of media testifies to the
appetite, or simple need, for information to help retailers make multichannel decisions.

The fact that multichannel supplements and articles are a regular feature across a variety of media testifies to the
appetite, or simple need, for information to help retailers make multichannel decisions.

I hear and read of strategies relating to ‘going back to basics but across multiple channels’, talk of ‘putting the customer at the heart of our multichannel strategy’, and intentions to ‘be on mobile’. I hear and read of tactics relating to click-and-collect, same-day delivery, or addressing perceived showrooming. All commendable aims, but they are surely a step down from the real goal?

The word I don’t seem to hear enough is ‘growth’. Putting the customer first is great, and there are some wonderfully clever people undertaking some staggeringly ambitious customer initiatives. But I find myself wondering whether they need to remember their real responsibility is to their employer, the retailer, first. Anyone leading any multichannel project must surely link it explicitly to, and be required to measure against, business growth (survival, in the first instance, notwithstanding).

Perhaps this speaks to the relevance of the skills feature - the need to recruit and train people who have an eye for and experience of the broader, high-level view?

  • Heikki Haldre, founder and chief executive, Fits.me

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