THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST… AND MOBILE

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST… AND MOBILE

Record online activity

UK online retail sales hit an astonishing £133bn in 2016 - £25bn of which was spent in the six weeks prior to Christmas Eve.

The figures are staggering, representing 15.9% year-on-year growth from 2015.

It has prompted us at Tent Hire to ask a couple of simple questions:

· What are drivers for people purchasing online?

· And what devices are being used to execute the sales?

Having traded in the leisure sector for almost 50 years, and having had an ecommerce platform (www.a2zcamping.co.uk) for more than five years, we feel sufficiently armed with the necessary experience and data to fill in the blanks.

Price, convenience, time, stock availability, free postage, payment methods, robust returns and cancellation policies, after sales care and online reviews are the standard responses when consumers are asked why they shop where they do.

I would throw in history and integrity of retailer, experience, brand loyalty and ease of web site use, also.

Online competition has never been so intense, some would say cut-throat, placing an ever-increasing importance on the customer’s ‘sales journey’.

One significant slip may not see the retailer lose a short-term sale, but the long-term relationship may forever be on far rockier ground.

Our family business traces back to the 1970s. Not too many rivals can hold a candle to that. In-depth product knowledge is a given, with there being no need for the ‘crib sheet’ approach adopted by others.

Smartphone revolution

Our web site sales data also confirms a trend towards ‘smartphone’ shopping.

There was a 10% fall in global sales of tablet devices in 2016 compared to 2015, with smartphones last year accounting for 54% of UK online sales made on mobile devices.

In 2016, 56% of Tent Hire’s web site sales were made via a desktop, 31% via a tablet and 13% via a smartphone. Year to date, that landscape has shifted to 52%, 27% and 21% respectively.

In an increasingly mobile world, the mobile phone will soon become king.

And that is why Tent Hire will, very shortly, be launching a new, increasingly mobile friendly web site. Weekly blogs, updating on the timetable, will follow on our existing forum, but look out for an increased focus on new 2018 products, supplied by long-standing partners Kampa (www.kampa.co.uk), Sunncamp (www.sunncamp.co.uk), Quest (www.questleisure.com), Outwell (www.outwell.com), Pennine (www.plsgroup.co.uk), Outdoor Revolution (www.outdoor-revolution.com) and Streetwize (www.streetwizeaccessories.com). Plus, we are pleased to announce a new and exciting partnership with Camptech (www.camptech.com) .

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Any comments would also be much appreciated.