Second Life for High Street Brands On-line

Second Life for High Street Brands Online - 1st April 2009

The news that old high street stalwarts Woolworths are looking to re-launch their brand as an Internet presence comes at a time when e-commerce looks incredibly healthy in relation to its brick and mortar counterparts. Figures from IMRG show that online sales increased by 12% year on year in February, while figures for the high street remain depressed.

Zavvi, another casualty of the shrinking economy are also looking to start afresh as an Internet retailer with a product range expanded to include perfume, underwear and other lifestyle goods in addition to CDs, DVDs, games and electrical goods.

The significant savings brought about through online retails’ reduced overheads could see other failing businesses brought back from the brink of administration and re-launched as Internet only operations. However, embracing e-commerce as a sales platform alone won’t solve the problems that may have led businesses to go under in the first place: it simply gives them a second chance.

With this in mind, Woolworths, Zavvi and others like them will have to look closely at the functionality of their sites to make sure that they are easy to navigate, and interactive and secure enough to compete with the established names in e-commerce. This will be integral to re-instilling confidence in consumers about these fallen giants.

They will also have to think carefully about how they intend to promote themselves online. Woolworths have already been taking advantage of social media to help refocus on what their most loyal customers expect to see from the re-launch, with a blog, Twitter feed and Facebook page for feedback. In order to gain credibility as an Internet retailer, Zavvi and others will be expected to do likewise; we’ll be monitoring the success of these re-launches as they develop.