One of the questions that we often get asked by retailers is ‘how much should I be spending on my website?’ And so I was very interested to read a report from Prologic that covered this very question.
They surveyed 40 UK online fashion retailers. 30% said that they expected their e-commerce IT budget to be between 5% and 9% of their online sales, with a further 13% indicating that theirs would reach 10-19% of sales:
Other highlights from the report:
- 63% of the retailers say that e-commerce is their top priority for investment this year
- Overseas growth, site usability, and widening the range sold online are the main focus
- Web sales represent an average of 6.3% of total sales
- Key multi-channel integration aims are: allowing a customer to return goods bought online to a store; letting customers check instore stock online; and providing gift cards that can be redeemed online and in-store
I have to query one point, however: according to the report, 30% of the companies questioned can already allow customers to check store stock levels on the retailer’s website. While retailers in other sectors have achieved this, I only know of one UK fashion retailer that can do this at the moment and so I would be very surprised if the 30% figure is true. Download the full report.
