Online retailers are not waiting for the economic recovery
before investing in new technology, as confidence grows that the
sector will rebound faster than others.
Online sales have not been hit as hard by the economic slowdown
as high street sales. Despite the recession, the average monthly
increase this year of online sales is 15%, according to the latest
research from IMRG and Capgemini.
Research
carried out by Internet Retailer revealed that 72.4% of online
retailers will increase their spending on technology this year.
The survey questioned web-only merchants, retail chains,
catalogue companies, and manufacturers of consumer brands.
A total of 14% of companies surveyed said they would increase
spending by more than 50%, 13.1% said they would increase it by
between 20.1 and 50%.
The largest group (29%) said they would increase spending
between 10.1% and 15%, with the second biggest group (21.5%)
planning to increase their spend by 5.1% and 10%.
33.5% of respondents said investment in an e-commerce platform
was the main priority.
John Lewis, for example, is
investing heavily in its e-commerce technology infrastructure.
The retailer wants its online and in-store sales to be integrated
so it can use sales information to cross-sell. It is developing
software to integrate in-store systems, web order systems and Epos
terminals.