IMRG – High street sales drop while online gains big wins

Gareth    eCommerce     2008, cap, capgemini, eretail, gemini, imrg, index, sales

A good report from the Capgemini and IMRG guys recently, (don’t know why they have to do the report together -maybe holding hands so they don’t get scared!), stating that online sales are now accounting for 17% of all retail sales and that this is predicted to rise to between 30% and 50% in the next five years. This is huge!

Not only do high street retailers have to start thinking about how this affects their business models – they have to do so soon as the credit crunch hits the high street and pushes even more people online. Fuel prices, convenience, cost savings, and cold dark weather are all factors influencing the shift.

James Roper, IMRG’s Chief Executive is quoted as saying “Clothing and footwear sales were the biggest losers in physical stores in June with sales flat or lower despite heavy discounting”. In fact, we’ve seen stores like Black trying out 50% discounts right now to stack them high and sell them cheap – smacking of desperation perhaps? He goes on to say “Online, internet clothing sales were up to 32% and footwear rose by 38%.”

In fact, with things like free delivery and Zero Hassle returns, high resolution multi-angle images, and a nice shopping experience at sites like Webtogs – is there any more reasons NOT to shop online?

eConsultancy reviews Webtogs

Gareth    eCommerce     econsultancy, graham, interview, philip, webtogs, wilkinson

We had a good interview and review of the site posted today by those nice chaps at eConsultancy, and you can read the full interview here.

It was actually interesting to talk about how the last 6 months have gone with Webtogs and how much we’ve done and learnt in that time period. In particular they focussed on the product page changes we’ve recently made, the checkout process, and how we are currently marketing the site. While this is some important stuff – I realised it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

What we haven’t yet talked about on the blog but must do soon:

• How the new warehouse and office move went
• How we’ve gone about building a really good customer service team
• Who the team members now actually are and their backgrounds
• What stats we measure about the site and why
• What our dev roadmap looks like for the next few months
• When are we finally putting customer reviews, editor reviews, and videos live
• How we’ve found working with the big outdoor brands
• My experience with dealing with the price comparison engines (this could be a biggy)

I think one thing is for sure – everyone has been stretched to the limit right now but we’ve been pushing on with the adrenalin rush of creating something big and meaningful. Now – where’s that Redbull!

New tea boy in town

Gareth    eCommerce, Uncategorized     dorset, london, relocation, work

Today is a strange day and a strange blog post for me. Life has been chaotic and disconcerting for my family for the last four weeks for a fairly monumental reason. My wife and I have both resigned from our jobs, we have sold our house and are currently living out of the back of a large estate car. Couple this with the fact we have a 1 year old son and most people would be scratching their heads and wondering if we lived in one of the many conflict zones around the world. Thankfully, the reason is a much happier, though still nervous and exciting one. We have given up two succesful careers in London for me to come and work for Webtogs.

Lots of emotions and thoughts have been discussed before we decided to make this move. On the caution side we both had good jobs, at Northern Trust for me and English Partnerships for Cath. I was also concerned about working with such a good friend as James as my friendship with him is worth a great deal to me and I didn’t want this affected. There was also the fact that Cath would be giving up her job to become a full time Mum. All these concerns however have been outweighed by the positives. First and foremost, Webtogs has grown in the short time it has been live to be an extremely successful business. For me personally I get to combine my passion for hill walking as my job which is just the nuts. I also get to work in a completely differernt environment to the corporate life I have become accustomed to and I am looking forward to a working style that is miles away from the suits I used to wear. Finally, we get to live in some beautiful countryside and our son gets to grow up in Dorset instead of SE London.

So here we are. Moving from friends house to friends house, saying goodbye to people we love in London and on the cusp of a new adventure with Webtogs. I’m nervous but do you know what? I just can’t wait to be a part of this business!!!

Webtog Blog – don’t worry, we’re still here!

Gareth    eCommerce, Planning     back, blog, Brands, comments, stock, webtogs

We realised yesterday over our morning coffee meeting that we haven’t actually been updating our blog in a long time. Shame on us! Apologies for that – it’s been a hectic time are at Baa HQ with signing up many new brands to come on board and receive shipments of the next line of stock for Winter.

Needless to say there is a lot to talk about and we want to get this blog rolling again with insightful views and experience sharing from our side and yours too.

Right – time to hit the whiteboard!

Top 5 Outdoor Gear for Geeks

Gareth    eCommerce, General Outdoor     gear, geeks, outdoor, top5

I’ve been a geek for a good 10 years now (although I love both tech things and women equally!), and I’m passionate for the outdoors. What I’ve managed to do is put together a list of recommended stuff that combines both of these in one place. So here it is, enjoy..

1: Oakley Thump Pro MP3 Sunglasses

Why I like it They’re lightweight, hold 1gb of storage, and look pretty cool when I’m snowboarding. Very easy to take the buds out your ears and use them as a pair of decent shades too.

2: Quicksilver U-Ramp I-PodJacket

Why I like it Buttons down the left hand side are responsive and enables me to control my integrated ipod. Easy to manipulate when moving fast. The Jacket is also a decent outer shell too.

3: Keen Burnside Laptop Pack

Why I like it Has a little pouch to fit my macbook pro into it. Side entry zip is genius for getting into a packed bag with all my RoR programming books. High quality material too.

4: PowerMonkey Explorer

Why I like it A slim clam-shell of solar panels for recharging my gadgets while out and about. Handles my ipod, iphone, and PSP no probs. Takes a couple of hours to charge, but nothing like being able to juice up my stuff while at the top of remote mountain.

5: Space Invaders jacket

Why I like it I had to order this from Denmark and not sure if you can still get it. Even so – it has loads of little pixelated alien dudes from Space Invaders on it. What more can I say!

Ok – that’s what I’ve got for now. Let me know if you agree with it in the comments – but personally these are THE best outdoor tech gear items by far..

New Brand Landing Pages

Gareth    eCommerce    

We’ve started rolling out some new site updates recently and the first elements are the new landing pages for our brands, starting with Berghaus, Mountain Equipment, and Keen.

First thing you’ll notice is an actual brand header outlining the brand’s message in more detail and some text explaining a bit about them, with relevant links to new products in their range or explanations of the technology they’re using (click the image below to see it full size):

Each product range the brand stocks is outlined in a cleaner fashion, and we are now showing the bestseller list from that brand on the left hand side. Overall – nothing major but a sign of what we’re doing right now – small, incremental changes, based on what we’ve learnt from the last few months of user stats and feedback.

Now believe me when I say this is the 15th variant we came up with before putting it live… all fun and games.