Steven Noble, senior analyst at Forrester, has authored the two reports which together provide insights into the state of online retailing in Australia. The first, ‘Performance and Channels‘, investigated how online retailers are faring and their channel strategies, finding that the shift towards multichannel retailing is coming, but is presenting some challenges.

Multichannel shopping tools and features are still in basic stages, with few Australian retailers making progress. In-store collection is provided by 49 percent of online retailers, but for the biggest, nation-wide companies it can be very challenging. Coles’ trials with ‘click and collect’ refrigerators was highlighted as an advancement, allowing customers to order online and collect from locked refrigerators located outside supermarkets and petrol stations.

The second report, ‘Marketing, Merchandising and Customer Service‘, found that Australian online retailers are still quite focused on the customer engagement basics, prioritising search at the expense of other forms of marketing. The number one strategy to improve performance presently is content improvement. But Forrester predicts the future will see affiliate marketing becoming mainstream, with experiments in richer forms of content and measurement taking place.