Retailers should put as much emphasis on relationships and trust as they do on online development, according to Maplin chief executive John Cleland.
Speaking at Retail Week Live at the launch of the Multichannel Report – produced by Retail Week in association with consultancy Conlumino – Cleland said: “The internet is not brilliant at after sales service and relationships with customers are key.”
However, highlighting the importance of online, he said: “If advice is all you do best, you end up like Jessops.”
He said relationships with customers are key to “stop them walking out and shopping at Amazon purely on price.”
The session highlighted that retailers have experienced huge online growth but that will be difficult to sustain. Conlumino managing director Neil Saunders said the report found that the store of the future will change, and be less about a place to transact.
He said the report highlighted multichannel is less about revolution now, and more about evolution.
Cleland said that Maplin was at the cutting edge online in 1999 but didn’t see much uplift afterwards and therefore failed to keep up investment. He said that left Maplin behind the times, and it is now making a substantial investment to catch up.
Nick Wilkinson, chief executive of Evans Cycles, said his two biggest competitors are pureplays, Wiggle and Chain Reaction, and that he has to “watch them like a hawk or fall behind”.
He said: “Sometimes I forget I’m running a bikes business, I am thinking so much about technology and what we need to be doing. One of the most important hires is your IT director to make sure you stay on top.”
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