Shopping Centers Today -> October 2002
 PRINT THIS STORY:
|
  CHANGE TEXT SIZE: |
|
CAUTIOUS CANADIANS
Canadians remain highly wary about buying over the Internet, according
to a survey by Leger Marketing, a Montréal-based market research
firm. Sixty percent of Canadians use the Internet, but of these,
51 percent say they haven’t shopped online and don’t intend
to. “Canadians are definitely concerned with Internet security,”
Anne-Marie Marois, the company’s communications director, told
SCT. “I think it’s a question of culture.”
ESPRESSO BY E-MAIL
Denver Starbucks coffee fans with Internet access don’t have
to line up for their beverage. The company has launched Starbucks
Express at its more than 60 locations in the metro area, which allows
customers to order and pay online, then turn up five minutes later
to collect their refreshments. A similar program is operating in
Seattle. If the program is successful, the company said, it may
be introduced nationwide.
MULTICHANNEL HEADACHES
Retailers assume multichannel shoppers are more lucrative, but that
is not necessarily the case, Juliana Deeks, a Jupiter Research associate
analyst told
SCT. Though 52 percent of the U.S. online population
has used a retail Web site to research a product that they ultimately
bought in a store, only 10 percent bought it from the store owning
the Web site, the report said. “There’s a common assumption
today that multichannel shoppers are inherently more valuable than
others,” Deeks said. But these shoppers like to shop around
for the best deal, she explained, urging retailer caution.
ANOTHER FOR AMAZON
Amazon.com, which since October has played host on its site to Target’s
online store, is now receiving customers also for Target Corp.’s
Mervyn’s and Marshall Field’s department store divisions.
Shoppers who go to Mervyn’s and Marshall Field’s sites
find themselves directed to Target.com. Target does the actual shipping
of goods ordered from these stores, while Amazon handles the site.
CHINESE VENTURE DELIVERS THE GOODS
Those defunct food and merchandise deliverers — Kozmo, Urban
Fetch and their like — are often held up as icons of the irrationality
of the U.S. dot-com boom, because they believed they could make
money without charging their customers. But a similar venture in
China, Sohu.com, is doing that very thing quite successfully in
Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, according to a report by Knight
Ridder Newspapers. Customers order a wide range of products supplied
by stores affiliated with Sohu.com and receive free delivery by
bicycle for any order over $2.50. One reason the venture is succeeding:
The cyclists earn only about $100 a month.
GAY CUSTOMERS MAKE E-TAILERS HAPPY
Some online retailers are working to attract gay customers, who
are considered to be more educated and affluent than straights by
researchers. Orbitz, the online travel agency, has set aside a section
of its site to gays, as did Motorola this summer, and CarsDirect.com
has marketed itself on portals popular with gays, reported The New
York Times. “Businesses that ignore the gay community are missing
an opportunity,” Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at technology
consulting firm Forrester Research, told the paper.
A CLERK
Sales assistants see a confused-looking customer wandering around
a store and walk over to help. Now some Web merchants are starting
to offer the same service. LivePerson, a retail services application
provider, enables such retailers as eBay, Godiva and QVC to spot
shoppers wandering their sites and guide them. A crucial challenge,
though, will be to help shoppers without giving them the sense that
they are being monitored, experts say.
