email is not the only communication

Last year, online sales increased by 16% to £68bn. The growth of online sales is expected to slow down in 2012, but the IMRG and Capgemini are still predicting 13% growth in 2012.

Online now accounts for 17% of total retail spend, however bricks and mortar retail still plays a significant part in the buying process. I can vouch for that having just bought a new camera, I went to the retail outlet to get a look and feel for what is on offer and then bought online with a 5% discount. Is the future of retailing just as a sensory playground to touch and feel products prior to buying online?

The more retailers distance themselves from their customers the greater will be the need to capture and maintain accurate contact details of their customers. No longer will shop staff be able to look at a customer, size them up and point them in the right direction. There are algorithms that do that, based on past purchases and interests while the customer is in the online world, the key is to be able to track that customer through all their purchase cycle.

Therefore it will be just as important to track them when they actually go into a shop, capturing details of name and address using Postcode Look Up systems help speed up this process. Regular data cleansing will improve delivery and targeting of marketing campaigns, 'email is not the only communication method, others methods are available'.

Relying solely on online purchase data will give a distorted view of the buying process.