Markus Röse, Managing Director, Commerce Connector

Retail Dominates Over Online Brand Stores

What are the advantages or disadvantages of brands selling direct online? Is it better for them to lead customers to retailers’ sites? We put the question to Markus Röse, Managing Director, Commerce Connector.

There’s a massive concentration of touchpoints where consumers shop online.

This can be seen in dynamic markets like the US and China, but also in Europe. Most of the ecommerce turnover is generated by large retailers or platforms. The mobile shift will foster that development even more.

Accordingly, I don’t believe that consumers are going to start buying products from a brand’s online store when they’ve been trained to buy them at retail. In my view, only a few CE brands are able to scale direct sales significantly. Brand websites remain an important piece of the puzzle, as consumers will use the link to retail simply for the sake of convenience.

In terms of the digital customer journey, how can brands strengthen their impact?

The classic digital journey has moved from a linear journey into a non-linear, unpredictable, and shared one. Consumers are interacting constantly with brands across multiple devices, channels and platforms. Brands need to connect the dots across this landscape. Watching, listening and interacting on a multitude of channels like Instagram, Facebook and WeChat is key to building engaging insights for the consumer who is always online.

Putting customer-centric thinking at the heart of each channel’s strategy will help build meaningful relationships and thus make a difference.