Bad weather is often considered a boon for online retailers and
cataloguers who benefit from shoppers’ reluctance to step
outside. However, the recent cold snap, which saw much of the
British Isles covered in snow and ice, has brought with it severe
disruption to online retailers as well as to their
bricks-and-mortar counterparts.
According to published reports, hotel and coffee-shop chain
Whitbread suffered a hit of up to £2 million due to the snow
and ice, whilst at builders’ merchants Travis Perkins, the
company that owns Wickes, trading in December was negatively
impacted by the weather. Some retailers, such as Marks & Spencer
and John Lewis, have even stopped home deliveries to customers in
Scotland because of the snow.
But it’s not all doom and gloom on the high street. Apparel
retailer White Stuff, for example, held a successful in-store
event for loyal customers on 2nd December, one of the worst
affected days of the year, weather-wise. In its mail order
division, the 2nd December was the biggest ever home-shopping day
of the year, with sales topping the £1 million-mark.
According to home shopping director, Alison Lancaster, White
Stuff is meeting its sales forecasts across all of its channels,
“when the snow hit the UK earlier this month, naturally
some of our customers couldn’t get out to shops, but generally
retail sales weren’t affected and were still very strong that
week.”
Elsewhere on the high street, toys and novelties retailer
Hawkin’s Bazaar says it’s operating at “record output
levels”. According to Josephine Jenkins, operational
support director, the retailer’s new click and collect service
has proved very popular with customers, who order online and pick
up in-store-cutting out the worry of delivery delays.
Record sales
It’s not surprising that the cold weather boosted sales of
certain items. At Shop Direct, the parent of company of
Littlewoods and Very, sales of knitwear were up 70 percent, while
sales of outerwear and coats were up 40 percent year-on-year.
Chief executive Mark Newton Jones said in a statement that the
cold weather helped Shop Direct experience the “best
performing week online in the history of the business, with
demand up 42 percent year-on-year.”
At garden centre Dobbies, the business saw record online sales in
the two weeks from November to early December, with a 68.5
percent rise in sales of bird care items, compared with last
year.
At M&G Presents, which operates the Presents for Men and Gifts
for the Girls catalogues and websites, sales of items such as ice
grippers and handwarmers have “gone through the
roof”, says managing director Jane Hudson, who adds that
more stock was brought in to meet demand.
Communicating the message
Despite this online optimism, direct sellers must not become
complacent. They cannot make the assumption that because the
front end of their business is handling record order levels
without a hitch, the back-end is coping just as well. Richard
Dalziel, finance director at Christopher Ward, a
cataloguer/online retailer of watches, says the key to keeping
customers happy is honesty. If retailers cannot meet their
delivery promises, he says, they must communicate that with their
customers. At press time, Christopher Ward’s last-order date for
Christmas delivery was 1pm on 23rd December, but Dalziel says the
date will be assessed on the 20th of the month to determine
whether it’s realistic, and any change will be communicated to
customers.
Another etailer, Pet Planet, sent its entire database an email
titled “Weather Beaten, But Not Beaten By The
Weather” on 9th December. The email updated customers on
the weather conditions at Pet Planet’s base in Livingston, West
Lothian. “The wave of positive emails we had in response
stunned me,” says managing director Kevin Hague.
“Customers do love to be told what is going on in a clearly
honest and ‘human’ way. I do believe the volume of calls in to
our call centre were dramatically reduced as a result, as this
email preempts many customer questions.”
Shop Direct also makes a point of reassuring its customers; it
set up a “weather warnings” section on its website to
help shoppers see if their local area is affected and whether
deliveries can be made.
“Managing customer expectations is key and we have updated
our website on a daily basis with affected postcodes and emailed
customers,” says M&G Presents’ Jane Hudson. However, once
the snow clears, she feels customers will expect their orders to
be delivered immediately, something that will likely take several
days in the worst affected areas.
To combat the backlog, several couriers and delivery firms are
ramping up their operations. Royal Mail, for instance, says it is
investing £20 million in additional measures to deal with
the adverse weather conditions. These included recruiting 3,000
more staff to support the Christmas operation. It also added 500
more HGV drivers and an extra 250 large lorries to complement the
existing fleet.
Home Delivery Network has also increased its workforce and the
number of vehicles it operates where possible, and says it is
working with its clients to keep them updated on a daily basis
and “to manage incoming parcel volumes
appropriately”.
Courier group Hermes has a similar message to customers. It
increased temporary cover where some of its couriers have had
difficulty meeting demand. For the first time it has also set up
temporary parcel pickup points, “in places such as churches
and YMCAs”, in Scotland and the north-east of England where
customers can collect parcels, says Jon Tobbell, commercial
director of Hermes Europe.
Most of the multichannel retailers Catalogue e-business
spoke to were confident of meeting their delivery promises for
Christmas 2010, but the true impact of the big freeze on the
sector will be felt in January. With more snow forecast for the
week leading up to Christmas, and a possible repeat of last
January’s cold snap on the way, retailers better get their
contingency plans honed to perfection.
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