E-commerce makes further inroads

Online retailing is making greater advances, according to Christopher Wicker, chairman of the Retail Consulting Group. Pointing to France, he said online sales were up 24% at EUR 31 bn last year compared with 2009. ‘With annual growth of 20%, sales will total EUR 45 bn by 2013,’ he predicted. That figure would represent around 10% of total consumer sales which were put at EUR 457 bn last year.

Speaking at the annual European conference of the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) in Paris last week, Wicker said that retail markets were currently being reinvented due to regulatory and generational changes as well as technological innovation. The ‘e-drive’ is a case in point, he said, pointing to a special drive-through building that retailers have developed in France where consumers can pick up the goods they have purchased on-line.

The beauty of these ‘e-drives’, Wicker said, is that they may be classified as warehouse space which enables them to avoid the planning restrictions affecting ordinary retail locations. Indeed, they do not necessarily need to be located near a store and thus also offer potential to foreign retailers interested in testing a new market without having to make too big an investment. With floor areas of between 1,000 and 1,200 m2, there are currently about 500 e-drives in France operated by hypermarket chains such as Auchan, Casino and LeClerc. ‘Between 2011 and 2012, another 800 e-drives are planned,’ Wicker said.

Shopping centres, which already have large car parks in many cases, could adapt this concept quickly and easily, he added.

Another innovation that Wicker believes has potential further afield is the flash sale website developed by UK REIT Hammerson for its Italie 2 shopping centre in Paris. Operated by the centre’s tenant association, the site regularly offers special deals allowing consumers to purchase items online at steep discounts. The goods are subsequently purchased at the shopping centre, which often leads to further sales, Wicker said. ‘Fashion accounts for 37% of Hammerson’s total shopping centre sales. Some 44% of the shoppers collecting on-line products also buy in the shop,’ he said.

The concept of ‘click and collect’ is also taking off elsewhere in Europe, Simon Russell, Head of Multi-Channel Retailing at The John Lewis Partnership, confirmed. ‘Our research shows that 60% of our customers begin their research on-line, but prefer to go into our shops to make or collect the purchase.’ Those visiting the shop to collect generally make further purchases whilst there, he added.

Debates on multichannel retailing dominated the conference with the mood decidedly more optimistic overall than in previous years when e-commerce was largely seen as a threat. David Atkins, CEO of Hammerson, said understanding multichannel retailing was the biggest issue facing retail landlords in the next 10 to 20 years. Russell said that John Lewis’ multichannel retailing strategy was actually driving people back to its shops.

Internet offers a ‘fantastic’ opportunity for the shopping centre industry, Guillaume Poitrinal, CEO of Unibail-Rodamco, said in another session during the conference. The growth of ecommerce would prompt retailers to become more selective and move from B and C locations to larger, more dominant malls of the type that the Anglo-Dutch retail specialist has in its own portfolio, he argued.

He also predicted a split between shopping for daily necessities - which would migrate to the internet - and visiting shopping centres for pleasure. ‘What can we offer? We can offer emotion, pleasure and consideration. People will come to buy, but also for many more things such as knowledge and self-respect. They will come for a moment of pleasure in their lives.’