Digital IQ Index®: Specialty Retail 2013

Key Takeaways

specialty retailers are operating in a challenging environment the growth of e-commerce which already accounts for about eight percent of total retail sales in the us is expected to outpace sales growth at brick and mortar stores over the next five years reaching 370 billion dollars in sales by 2017. one player amazon is registering the lion's share of this growth reaching 14 percent of total ecommerce sales in 2012. amazon's revenues were up 22 in q1 2013 on an impressive 16 billion in quarterly revenue threatened and inspired by amazon's success digital investments across the 71 specialty retailers included in our 2013 digital iq report have ramped up significantly 28 of specialty retailers now provide 24 7 customer service up from just 18 a year ago live chat is also on the rise with 10 percent more retailers offering the feature this year than last year to ease the checkout experience on mobile devices and tablets 46 of retailers now offer paypal checkout up threefold from 2012. four retailers are offering free two-day shipping via a partnership with shoprunner in order to compete with the likes of amazon prime of the more than half of specialty retailers included in this report that advertise on facebook two-thirds are experimenting with the recently introduced facebook ad exchange while online sales are estimated to reach 262 billion dollars in 2013 the internet will influence 1.3 trillion dollars in sales or 43 of retail sales furthermore by 2016 689 billion dollars in sales will be influenced by mobile more than 20 times the estimated m-commerce the most successful specialty retailers in our fourth annual digital iq index specialty retail are prioritizing technology investments organizational incentives and attribution metrics to drive online and in-store growth soul genius brand sephora optimizes site and mobile investments to drive customers to their stores more than six hundred thousand sephora customers have linked their beauty insider loyalty cards to apple's passbook j crew jumped from an average ranking in 2012 to gifted in 2013 having strengthened its social performance and extended the very personal stylist program to an in-store mobile app our aim is to provide a robust tool to diagnose digital strengths and weaknesses and help brands achieve greater return on incremental investment members can download the full report at l2thinktank.com