Leave no
shopping
basket behind.
BoldChat reduces basket abandonment by 50%,
which should improve your sleep by 100%
www.boldchat.com/retail

From the editor-in-chief
WELCOME TO OUR latest IREU Top500 Performance Dimension
Report, which this time focuses on Mobile & Cross-channel.
While the mobile sales channel has only emerged in recent years,
its strategic importance cannot be underestimated. The fast uptake of
smartphones, and the growing appetite to browse and buy with them,
is currently driving both online sales and retail sales as a whole. Mobile
devices are now remote controls that customers use to organise their
lives – including the search for and acquisition of products, from the
utilitarian purchases of groceries and school uniforms through to more
leisurely hunts for fashion items, entertainment and gifts.
The smartphone is a device as suited to urgent purchases as to gentle
browsing, depending on the context. Retailers that understand this
are using a variety of means to serve customers along their journeys
– from fast mobile websites through to apps equipped with tools such
as barcode scanners, store locators and augmented reality – while also
But while some lead, adopting the latest tools and approaches to
selling via mobile and across channels, these cutting-edge performers
are well ahead of the average. Our research enables us to look for the
true picture behind the hype in order to give an understanding of
where European performance is, while measuring the incremental
improvements that traders are making to their businesses.
This Dimension Report is the latest instalment in a research
programme that started in the UK and has now extended to the
European context, analysing the ecommerce and multichannel
performance of leading retailers. It does so through the prism of six key
themes, which are listed in the panel to the right. All are informed by
the hard data that our research team produces, working in partnership
with our trusted InternetRetailing Knowledge Partners. This data
tells us how brands and retailers are working across the European
Economic Area, plus Switzerland, to extend services developed in
their domestic markets to a far wider audience. Along the way, we’re
identifying and sharing lessons that can be learned from this deeper
understanding of how retailers sell in practice. It’s a challenge, but
one that we’re enjoying.
We hope that our readers will share our fascination with these
you think. Please do share your thoughts.
Ian Jindal
Editor-in-chief
ian@internetretailing.net
Welcome 3
The IREU Top500 Dimension
Reports Series
Don’t forget that this Mobile &
Cross-channel Dimension Report
forms part of our wider series
analysing the performance of
Europe’s retailers.
Reports each year that focus on:
• Strategy & Innovation
• The Customer
• Operations & Logistics
• Brand Engagement
• Mobile & Cross-channel
• Merchandising
You can download the latest
copy of any of our Dimension
Reports, along with the overall
IREU Top500 report, via
Once you register, we will also send
you the latest Dimension Reports
as they are published, allowing
you to keep abreast of the latest
developments in the industry.
about the IRUK Top500, our index
of top retailers in Britain, via the
InternetRetailing website.

Editors’ comment
IN THIS SECOND IREU Top500 Performance Dimension Report,
we focus squarely on mobile and cross-channel retail. One device
in particular has transformed this area: the smartphone. That’s
because the smartphone manages to be both the cross-channel glue
that binds sales channels together, yet also the lubricant that makes
the customer journey across retail touchpoints smoother. It enables
a shopper to search the retail store from home and also to look for
online information from within the store. Coupled with cross-channel
services such as click and collect or in-store returns, this sales channel
has become a driver of growth all across Europe.
In this Dimension Report, we explore how retailers are using mobile
in their business models as they trade at scale in this continent, and
we investigate how the use of mobile varies between markets. Our
strategic overview (page 8), from M-Retailing editor Paul Skeldon,
considers the context, looking at how retailers use mobile across the
We drill into the numbers supporting this view in our Analysing the
Numbers feature (page 12). Over the following pages, from page 18, we
look at best practice examples through a combination of case studies
and interviews. Czech general merchandise retailer Alza gives us our
interview subject, while supporting case studies focus on Apple, Bon
Prix, House of Fraser and Zara. Our 12 approaches that work feature
In our emerging practice feature (page 29), Paul Skeldon looks
at Internet of Things technology and asks how this will feed into
the future of mobile retailing. Finally, in our new research feature
(page 31), we consider the impact of page loading times on retailers’
performance. Speed, we learn, is hugely important.
We’ve found much that interested us in this area and we hope that
it proves equally interesting to our readers. We’re looking forward
to exploring these themes in the future through IREU Top500
Dimension Reports over the coming months.
We’d like to thank all of the Knowledge Partners who have
contributed their expertise and insights for this Dimension
Report. We welcome your thoughts on new areas of research
as we add to our primary data and analysis. Please email:
jonathan@internetretailing.net and chloe@internetretailing.net
Jonathan Wright and Chloe Rigby, Editors
Editors’ intro4

06 Partners’ perspectives
08 Strategic overview
12 Analysing the numbers
16 The IREU Top500
18 Lead interview and case studies
24 12 approaches that work
29 Emerging practice
31 New research
34 Conclusion
Contents
IREU Top500 Mobile
& Cross-channel 2016
Meet the team...
Ian Jindal
Editor-in-Chief
Publisher, speaker,
advisor and NED, Ian
leads our editorial and
research businesses.
ian@internetretailing.net
Jonathan Wright
Editor
Jonathan is an editor
and writer who has
written extensively
about digital business and culture.
jonathan@internetretailing.net
Chloe Rigby
Editor
Chloe is the editor of
InternetRetailing.net
and an award-winning
business journalist.
chloe@internetretailing.net
Martin Shaw
Senior Researcher
Martin devises
the scope and
methods of
InternetRetailing’s research as
head of the research team.
martin@internetretailing.net
Polina Modenova
Researcher
Polina’s primary
focus is our IREU 500
research on the top
European multichannel retailers.
polina@internetretailing.net
Contents 5

Partner perspective6
Make things personal to
drive mobile sales
Steven Ledgerwood, UK managing director at Emarsys,
considers the critical importance of the mobile sphere
to ecommerce and multichannel traders.
design with limited screen space and
product relevance.
Someone sitting on a train
browsing emails on their phone
will only click to buy if a product
recommendation is tailored to their
process is as simple as possible.
How do you see this area
developing in the future?
machine learning are transforming
how marketers deliver campaigns
developments enable smarter
product recommendations built on
personalised customer data, not
rudimentary segments that the
retailer believes are correct.
Automation is also becoming
increasingly advanced and powerful.
Marketers are now able to focus on
creating compelling mobile-friendly
content rather than data management,
segmentation and complicated
How do retailers need to act
now in order to be ready for
that future?
progress and taking too long to
embrace mobile can have a negative
undeniably means learning which
How important is it for retailers to
think cross-channel and mobile?
Mobile is crucial. Any retailer or brand
that neglects mobile risks missing
out on substantial revenue, it’s as
simple as that. Very few shoppers are
loyal to one channel or marketplace.
smartphones, laptops, social media,
marketplaces and physical stores.
makes the data about how we browse
and interact with our favourite brands
a lot more fragmented. For retailers,
management is more important
than ever. As much customer data as
possible needs to be brought together
to capture a shopper’s attention at the
right time with the right product.
What suggestions do you have
for effective ways retailers can
do this?
We’ve been saying this for some time:
personalise, personalise, personalise.
Attention spans are extremely limited
on mobile. Strategies that worked
in-store or for shoppers sitting at a
desk do not apply to the channel.
People only part with their
hard-earned money when they feel
needs to perfection. Mobile-focused
email marketing campaigns need
to convey this clearly, both in their
strategies work for existing customers
knowledge will only reveal itself by
analysing the data available to you.
Marketing cloud platforms such
retailers to target shoppers across a
range of channels, mobile included.
Don’t forget the value of social ads.
Distributing compelling content on
a customer’s emails will make the
individual feel more valued, engaged
and willing to purchase a product.
About Emarsys
Emarsys is a leading global
provider of marketing automation
cloud for retail and ecommerce.
interactions between marketers
and consumers across all channels
– building loyalty, enriching the
customer journey and increasing
revenues. Machine learning
and data science fuels customer
intelligence in an intuitive, cloud-
based platform. emarsys.com

Partner perspective 7
Right channel,
right customer, right time
Ross Haskell, Senior Director, Products, at BoldChat argues that
customer engagement is moving on from multichannel choice,
to omnichannel problem-solving
About Boldchat
www.boldchat.com

Strategic overview8
Quick work, slow progress
Today’s busy consumers want to be able to shop
across channels and with minimum fuss. Enabling
them to do this, argues Paul Skeldon, is tough,
but leading companies don’t shirk the challenge
BACK IN 2008,
The need for speed
Czech store Alza has an app with transactional
functionality, but two out of three retailers don’t
Imagecredit:Alza

Strategic overview 9
and design where they score highly,
separating elite retailers from the rest.
a top tier pan-European mobile retailer. It
runs dedicated iOS and Android apps in the
Austria. Its pan-European Alzashop app
product ratings, customer reviews and the
ability to share products on social media. The
through predictive search.
Apple, as you might expect, comes
out strongly, with highly interactive and
across borders. Available in 14 European
languages in the EEA region, the Apple Store
ability to zoom, as well as allowing users to
leave product ratings and reviews. It also
features a wishlist and a range of interesting
app features, including EasyPay receipts
and appointment reminders. Customers can
return their unwanted goods within 14 days
EEA region.
Elite retailer in the InternetRetailing UK
and return any unwanted goods to stores
rare features, including the ability to enter
and scan loyalty cards, a barcode scanner
more about featured products.
“We expect to see continued growth in
mobile devices being a real driving force of
a consistent customer-centric approach that
gives a personalised shopping experience.
“Being a multichannel retailer in Europe
proposition that engages with customers
through mobile and this will continue to be
an essential part of what we do.”
a successful mobile and cross-channel
only a basic transactional app, but also one
that improves the shopping process, whether
House of Fraser’s apps are ahead of the curve, helping
the retailer achieve exemplary mobile performance
Imagecredit:HouseofFraser

10
The importance of apps
This is the vital part of what makes a good
mobile and cross-channel retailer. As Michael
Langguth, co-founder of Poq, one of the
Knowledge Partners in the IREU500 project,
puts it: “An increasing number of shoppers
today are app-only or store-and-app-only,
helps both, you simply don’t have exposure
to that customer demographic. App store
optimisation and improvements in web
search for apps are starting to become hot
topics because they help retailers get access
to new, especially younger, consumers.”
are providing customers with an additional
channel to shop from. When shoppers can
link their accounts on desktop, mobile web
and app, they receive the best possible
shopping experience across channels, and it
becomes easier for them to spend money with
store app features such as barcode scanners,
says Langguth. “At the end of the day, in
retail it’s all about how many touchpoints you
Among these touchpoints – and the kind
research are revealing to be as essential – are
relatively simple things such as transactional
Strategic overview
checkers and loyalty. These are the bread and
butter of app functionality today, and they
are frequently used, key features that pull
Swiss retailers achieved top marks in the
stock checking functionality (61 and 31%
respectively), while nearly 10% of Portuguese
any stock checking ability. Both also featured
surprisingly low in the UK too, at 49% and
18% respectively.
Other key features that consumers
increasingly expect but that many retailers
fail to deliver, lie around loyalty schemes.
These have been one of the big successes in
retail over the past 20 years but they have
so far failed to translate into the mobile and
cross-channel era.
Some 93% of UK consumers have at some
point signed up to a loyalty programme
and three quarters reported being an active
member for more than 12 months. However,
many schemes are not as actively used as
brands would like. Despite almost a third of
The load times of BonPrix’s Swiss and German sites
prove it adheres to the fastest web standards
Imagecredit:OttoGroup

“Customers
no longer
want to
rummage
for cards
to pay, or
keep paper
coupons”
Bjorn Langhorn
Lundt, Coop
Denmark
Strategic overview 11
cards, almost two-thirds stick to using only
one or two favourites on a regular basis.
Integrating loyalty into mobile is one of
the key things demanded by consumers and
an area where many IREU500 retailers are
falling short. The research shows that the
ability to enter a loyalty card into the retailer’s
app averages out at around 20% across all
EU retailers. The ability to scan in an existing
loyalty card into an app is around 10%, as is
the ability to set up loyalty club membership
within the app.
This is a glaring omission for many retailers
as loyalty schemes in apps can tie the user to
the store, to the app and to the brand. Where
schemes have upper AOV in the traditional
retail model, they can also help develop the
omnichannel model that consumers are
increasingly keen to embrace.
Seamless integrating loyalty
IREU Top50 retailer Coop has done a lot of
work on its loyalty app, making it something
increasingly, also in payments. In May 2016,
the Danish grocery chain announced a pilot
of the mobile payment app in its Kvickly and
SuperBrugsen stores. Since then, 10% of all
purchases in the test stores have come via
the Beep and Pay app.
Coop’s mobile app allows customers to
scan items into their basket, then seamlessly
pay at the till via their device, which is linked
directly to the customer’s dividend, bonus
wallet, or credit/debit card.
An extension to the Coop-built app from
this initial pilot is the integration with
the brand’s loyalty scheme, with targeted
promotions delivered straight to the customer
via the app. Further enhancing the customer
engagement, bonus points are calculated
based on their purchases whereas previously,
customers had waited until month-end or
each quarter to receive these bonuses.
“The promotional aspect of the Coop app is
creating a loyal and engaged customer-base
for Coop Denmark, one that is rewarded with
targeted and personalised bonuses,” notes
Bjorn Langhorn Lundt, head of procurement
from Coop Denmark. “Customers no longer
want to rummage for cards to pay, or keep
paper coupons to use at the till. They require
retailing options.”
This need for speed and convenience sums
up what makes the best of the best in the
IREU500. Those that come out on top all
have well thought out websites and apps that
degree of functionality that users demand.
The really good ones also view this
as part of the much bigger picture of
being the cornerstone of omnichannel and
cross-channel strategies. Since consumers
retailers need to appreciate that mobile can
be used to drive cross-channel behaviour in
such a way that it creates actual sales.
Building in all the functionality into mobile
apps is part of this process but understanding
demands – such as cross-border shopping
and returns, click and collect, loyalty and
store and stock location – is what makes for
a top-tier European retailer.
Danish grocery chain Coop is putting the smartphone
at the centre of the shopping experience
Imagecredit:Coop

Analysing the numbers12
Performing across
sales channels
Polina Modenova explains how
InternetRetailing researchers assessed the
ways that IREU Top500 retailers serve their
European customers across channels
THE LEADING RETAILERS in this Mobile
& Cross-channel Performance Dimension are
Mobile apps: what the Top500 do
cross-channel features that contribute to
Mobile apps: what the leaders do

Analysing the numbers 13
12. Our research found all are transactional
functionality that includes loyalty card
Mobile website: what the Top500 do
Designing an effective app
This study draws on anonymised usage data from Poq retail clients. Poq is a Knowledge Partner of the Top500
Used share 2.1 3.7 1.1
Viewed full screen image 1.7 2.0 1.1
Added to wishlist 1.5 1.6 1.0
Used search 1.5 1.7 0.9
Viewed product reviews 1.5 3.1 1.0
Used lookbook 1.5 0.5 2.0
Used store stock checker 1.3 2.8 1.2
Logged in users 1.3 2.6 1.0
Registered new account 1.2 2.5 0.9
What actions should retailers be encouraging on their apps?
The average correlation of retention, conversion, and average order value (AOV) with app users’ actions.
IREU 2016

14
Site speed is important because it makes
the shopping experience a faster and
more pleasant experience. It also gives an
indication of how much time and attention
the retailer has given to the site. On average,
IREU Top500 retailers scored 82 out of a
possible 100 for their website performance, as
measured through their PageSpeed score.
The fastest websites loaded in less than
3s, and we found the fastest average load
times, by country, in Poland, Austria and
Greece. Polish and UK retailers were the most
successful in optimising their webpages. They
loaded html quickly and included a relatively
small number of elements in the page.
Research from InternetRetailing
Knowledge Partner BuiltWith showed
how closely retailers adhered to mobile
web standards,. The research found the
highest standards among Top500 retailers
selling in Norway, Germany, the UK, the
Netherlands and Denmark.
Mobile website: what the leaders do
Spanish fashion retailer Zara stood out for
an average page load time of 3s across all its
mobile domains. The fastest was the UK site,
at nearly 2s, followed by the Hungarian site
at 2.8s. It achieved nearly 96 out of 100 on
PageSpeed score across its websites thanks
to a small number of page elements; only 17
were observed on Zara websites.
French value fashion trader BonPrix, which
websites, stood out for fast web loading times
across its sites, in nearly 7s. The average
PageSpeed score reached 79. Within that
business, its Swiss and German sites scored
93 out of 100, while the BonPrix France home
page loaded in 1.8s. The Lithuanian and
Estonian sites lagged some way behind.
Albert Heijn, with sites in the Netherlands
and Belgium, scored highly in the website
performance index and achieved 95 out of
100 for PageSpeed score on mobile. The site
loaded in 7.6s, thanks to a light page size of
just 530kb.
In the UK, House of Fraser’s page load
time was 18% faster than the average of 4s
achieved by IREU Top500 retailers.
Analysing the numbers
Cross-channel: what the Top500 do
It’s well documented that when customers
use a range of channels to buy from a
trader, they go on to spend more with that
retailer. Building links between the store
and the digital experience makes it easier for
shoppers to buy across channels, driving web
Our research in this area focused on
services that enable shoppers to pick up and
return their online orders in the store. We
found that almost a third (32%) of IREU
Top500 retailers enabled customers to do
this. The proportion was higher in Greece,
Germany, Denmark and Norway, where
shoppers this option.
Click and collect was more widespread.
More than half (52%) of retailers enable
shoppers to pick up their online orders
in the store. In Belgium, the UK and the
Cross-channel: what the leaders do
UK department store House of Fraser
performed strongly in the cross-channel sub-
promises delivery to all 32 countries in the
market with standard delivery in eight days
and express in three, with the exception of
Bulgaria. It enables cross-channel services,
including next-day in-store collection and the
return of online purchases to a convenient
House of Fraser store. Shoppers can order
via an iOS app, pick up their order from store
and return unwanted goods to stores within
28 days.
At Apple, customers can return unwanted
stores in 19 countries in the EEA region.
Others that stood out for cross-channel
services included electricals retailer Darty,
with the promise of click and collect within
an hour in all its French stores. A fast
click-and-collect service was also provided by
Matalan, River Island and Smythes. Lingerie-
click and collect from its Dutch, Belgian and
German websites, while click and collect is
also free at Matalan.
standard click-and-collect services. The
expedited service sees parcels delivered in
two days to third-party collection shops, and
stores around the UK, while the standard
service is free.
The mobile
site has
become an
important
part of any
retailer’s
multichannel
experience

Analysing the numbers 15
Mobile & Cross-channel Top50
Mobile & Cross-channel Top100
Auchan
Auchandrive.fr
B&Q
Bauhaus
Bershka
Boots
Boulanger
Brantano
Brico
C&A
Carrefour
Conrad
Coop
Debenhams
Desigual
Dorothy Perkins
Eduscho
eMAG
Evans
Ex Libris
F&F
Forever 21
Galeries Lafayette
GAP
Gigantti
Go Outdoors
Hagebaumarkt
Hema
Hollister
Hornbach
IKEA
Jack & Jones
JD Sports
LeroyMerlin
LloydsPharmacy
Lush
MajesticWine
Miss Selfridge
Oysho
PC World
Ryman
Sainsbury’s
Superdrug
Tesco
The Body Shop
Topman
Waitrose
Waterstones
Weltbild.at
XXXL
Albert Heijn
Alza
Apple Store
Argos
Asda
Blue Inc
BonPrix
Darty
Decathlon
Deichmann
Delhaize.be
Douglas
E-shop.gr
Empik.com
Fnac
Forbidden Planet
H&M
Halfords
Homebase
House of Fraser
Hunkemöller
Jack Wills
JBC
John Lewis
Konzum
Lidl
M&S
Mango
Massimo Dutti
Matalan
Media Markt
Migros
Mothercare
Next
Otto
Pimkie
Quiz
River Island
s.Oliver
Saturn
Smyths
Stradivarius
Tape À L’Oeil
Tchibo
Thalia
Topshop
Wallis
We Fashion
Zara
Share your thoughts on #IREU500 with @etail
The Top100 retailers of
the IREU 2016 Mobile &
Cross-channel Dimension
IREU 500 Mobile &
Cross-channel Dimension
In partnership with our Dimension Sponsor

Asos
Auchan
Bershka
Coop
Debenhams
Dorothy Perkins
eBay
Fnac
Halfords
Homebase
House of Fraser
Kiabi
Leroy Merlin
Mango
Massimo Dutti
Mothercare
New Look
PC World
Pimkie
Accessorize
Albert Heijn
Alternate
B&Q
Bol.com
Boohoo.com
Boulanger
C&A
Carphone Warehouse
Clarks
Conrad
Disney Store
Douglas
Dunelm
eMAG
Empik.com
Ernsting’s Family
Eroski
Esprit
Expert
F&F
Hema
Hollister
Hunkemöller
Jack & Jones
JD Sports
La Redoute
Matalan
Migros
Monoprix
OBI
Phone House
Prenatal
Promod
Pull & Bear
River Island
s.Oliver
Stradivarius
Superdrug
Swatch
Tchibo
Thalia
TK Maxx
Topman
Topshop
Wallis
Weltbild.at
Alza
Amazon
Argos
Asda
The Body Shop
Boots
Carrefour
Currys
Darty
Deichmann
Euronics
IKEA
Intersport
John Lewis
Lidl
M&S
Media Markt
Nike
Otto
Sainsbury’s
Saturn
Screwﬁx
SportsDirect.com
Tesco
Zalando
The IREU Top50016
Congratulations to the
IREU Top500, 2016
This is our 2016 ranking of the Top500 in Europe, based upon each retailer’s performance
across our six Performance Dimensions: Strategy & Innovation, The Customer, Operations
& Logistics, Merchandising, Brand Engagement, and Mobile & Cross-channel.
Our Elite retailers are statistically ahead of all others and they represent the pinnacle of European
multichannel retailing. Congratulations to Apple, Bon Prix, Decathlon, H&M, Next and Zara.

Adidas
Auchandrive.fr
A.S. Adventure
Bauhaus
Blokker
Camaieu
Castorama
Claire’s
Clas Ohlson
Conforama
Delhaize.be
E-shop.gr
E.Leclerc
Eduscho
El Corte Ingles
Evans
Foot Locker
Forbidden Planet
George at Asda
H.Samuel
Hagebaumarkt
Hornbach
JYSK
Konzum
Kruidvat
Lindex
Lloyds Pharmacy
Majestic Wine
Matras
Media World
Mein dm
Miss Selfridge
Oasis
Pandora
Quiz
Rossmann
Samsung
Schuh
Simply Be
Smyths
Spar
Staples
Swarovski
Toolstation
United Colors of Benetton
Vero Moda
Waitrose
WHSmith
Wilko.com
Yours Womenswear
Aktiesport
Allegro
Ann Summers
Apotek1
ATS Euromaster
Aubert
A.T.U.
Bata
Bathstore
Billa
Blue Inc
Bose
Bottega Verde
Brantano
Brico
Burberry
Burton
Cache Cache
Christ
D-Mail
Dänisches Bettenlager
Dia
Early Learning Centre
Electro Depot
Elkjop
Etam
Evans Cycles
Ex Libris
Footasylum
Forever 21
Galeria Kaufhof
Galeries Lafayette
Game
GAP
Gemo
Go Outdoors
Goldsmiths
Google Play
Hobbs London
Holland & Barrett
HP
Hugo Boss
Iceland
IKKS
Intreza.nl
Jacamo
Jack Wills
JBC
Karen Millen
Karwei
Kasa
Kijkshop.nl
Kik
L’Occitane
Lapeyre
Leen Bakker
Lego
Littlewoods
Lush
Mall.cz
Micromania
Mondadori Store
Monsoon
Morrisons
MS Mode
Nespresso
Ocado
Orchestra
Oysho
Peacocks
Pets at Home
Public.gr
Roller.de
RS Components
Ryman
Sally
Scapino
Shoe Zone
Sport Zone
Spreadshirt
Superdry
Tape À L’Oeil
Topps Tiles
USC
Vente-Privee
Very
Warehouse
Waterstones
We Fashion
Wickes
Wiggle
Worten
Xenos
XXL
YOOX.com
Yves Rocher
Zeeman
American Golf
Baby-Markt
bareMinerals
BCC
Bijou Brigitte
Boux Avenue
Bristol
BUT
Camper
CarpetRight
Cass Art
Cdiscount
Chaussea
Cotswold Outdoor
Cotton Traders
Crocs
Cultura-Socultur
Czc.cz
Dabs.com
Desigual
Diesel
Dreams
Dunnes Stores
Dustin
Ebuyer.com
El-Giganten
Electro World
Ellos
The Entertainer
Ernest Jones
Fat Face
Fust
Games Workshop
Gamma
Gigantti
Go Sport
Görtz
Gucci
Hippoland
hmv.com
Hobbycraft
Home Bargains
JD Williams
Jennyfer
Karstadt
Komplett
Komputronik
Krëfel
Lakeland
Laura Ashley
Libri
Lipsy
Louis Vuitton
M-Electronics Migros
M&Co
Maisons du Monde
MandM Direct
Maplin Electronics
Materiel.net
Medimax
Microspot.ch
Mio
Misco
Miss Etam
Missguided
Morgan
Mountain Warehouse
Müller
Net-A-Porter
The North Face
NotOnTheHighStreet.com
Obaïbi-Okaïdi
Okay
The Perfume Shop
Philips
Photobox
Plus.de
Puma
Real
Reiss
Rue du Commerce
Sole
Space.NK.apothecary
Specsavers
Stadium
Tati
Thorntons
Timberland
Tokmanni
Vertbaudet
Victoria’s Secret
Viking
Vistaprint
Wayfair.co.uk
Women’secret
The Works
XXXL
Zazzle
Achica
Adolfo Dominguez
AKI
Alba Moda
Albert
Alcampo.es
Allopneus.com
AllPosters.co.uk
AllSaints
Altex
American Apparel
ao.com
Apart
Apotek
Asics
AuchanDirect.fr
Avon
Babywalz
Barbour
Baur
BazarChic
Bensons for Beds
Berden
BestSecret
Bever
Bild Shop
Bimba Y Lola
Boden
BookDepository.com
Boozt.com
Bottega Venetta
Brico Depot
BuyVip
Card Factory
Casadellibro.com
Cath Kidston
Ceneo
ChaussExpo
Coast
Continente
Coolcat
Coradrive.fr
COS
Crazy Factory
DeLonghi
Delticom
Devred 1902
DFS
Dixons
Dr.Max
Dress-for-Less
e-Jumbo
Easy Buy World
Ecco
The Edinburgh
Woollen Mill
Euro Car Parts
Everything5pounds.com
Fashion Days
Fashion ID
Feelunique.com
Flanco
Fossil
France Loisirs
G-Sport
G-Star Raw
Gaastra
Gall & Gall
Grazia Shop
Guess
Habitat
Hervis
Jacques Vert
JouéClub
Just Eat
Kenzo
King Jouet
Kjell & Company
Kotsovolos
Kwantum
LaFeltrinelli
LDLC
Manor
Mercadona
Merlin
Microsoft
Mimovrste
Mindfactory.de
Mister Good Deal
Monica Vinader
Monki
Moonpig
Mr Porter
Myprotein
MyTrendyPhone
Nature & Decouvertes
Neonet
NetOnNet
Oscaro
Overclockers UK
Paperchase
Pepe Jeans London
Pizza.be
Plumbase
Plutosport.nl
Poco
Prada
Praktiker
Pret A Manger
Printing.com
Privalia
Ralph Lauren
The Range
Remix.bg
Reservix
Richer Sounds
Robert Dyas
Route One
Rowlands Pharmacy
Runners Point
Saldiprivati
SecretSales
Skatehut.co.uk
Smyk
Sportisimo
T.M. Lewin
T.S. Bohemia
Taobao
TechnoMarket
Thansen.dk
Thomas Sabo
Thuisbezorgd.nl
Ticketmaster
Timpson
Tom Tailor
Topachat.com
Trainline
Trespass
Vanden Borre
VanHaren
Vans
Vente-Exclusive.com
Villeroy & Boch
VM Zona
W. Kruk
Westwing
Witt Weiden
Zavvi
Zero
Zooplus
5.10.15.
The IREU Top500 17
3

Case studies18
Apple Store:
a company aesthetic
APPLE HAS LONG set the standard in
everything from product design and user
interfaces to devices and stores. Now it’s
doing the same for the mobile retail app.
Intuitively and clearly designed, Apple’s app
is a thing of beauty in its stark simplicity.
But under the hood, it is also extremely
functional and works across the EU.
Available in 14 European languages in
the EEA region, the Apple Store app – not
to be confused with the App Store – is a
of Apple’s products and services but also
transactional functionality.
runs across the bottom of a display and that,
at the time of writing, was a portal to discover
more about the iPhone7, which had just been
launched. Swiping reveals more details of
other products, such as the newly relaunched
Apple Watch.
To shop, the user simply has to tap a
button. This initial menu also gives access
to the user’s account and shopping bag. The
shopping interface is scroll based and broken
into categories of products.
Within the store, the app features at every
page. It also has multiple – and high-quality –
product images, the ability to zoom, product
ratings and reviews, plus the ability to build
product wishlists.
Additionally, it gives details of your devices
if you are logged in and allows you to contact
Apple Support direct from the app. There is a
handy list of FAQs, refund policy details and
much more, should users wish to dig deep
even these obscure corners can be easy.
On the downside, it can be slow to open,
especially following an upgrade, when it
needs the user to agree to the app using
location data and other device information.
Overall, it is worth the wait and, if you are
in the market to buy an Apple product – even
if that’s just an Apple-endorsed phone case or
checkout process, even letting you check out
with Apple Pay if you have signed up to it.
This allows you to purchase goods using your
The Apple Store app is
intuitive and well designed
the air of a slick and easy user experience that
many retailers would do well to try to emulate
at some point soon.
Imagecredit:apple.com
Web performance
Mobile app performance
Cross-channel
DIMENSION SCORECARD
IREU16/Mobile/November
internetretailing.net/organisations/RAPL
IREU 2016

Case studies 19
BonPrix:
performance at scale
WITH AROUND 30M customers in 29
countries, Hamburg-based Bonprix – part of
and furniture.
Android apps. Its apps are transactional and
‘searchandising’ in the IREU Top500 research
also indicate other stores that are part of the
the user friendliness of the app – a useful
honing its user experience.
other customers.
The retailer opened up a UK presence in
to a minimum.
through the main menus on the landing
generate a holding page before the initial
it is fast.
A transferrable shopping bag
lets users shop around with BonPrix
Group, but perhaps the most appealing aspect
All the sites/apps in the Otto Group are
retailers in the IREU500.
Imagecredit:OttoGroup
Web performance
DIMENSION SCORECARD
internetretailing.net/organisations/RBPR
IREU 2016

Lead interview20
Alza: expanding across
Europe to take on Amazon
THE LURE OF pan-national cross-channel
retail has not been lost of many retailers.
The success of brands such as Amazon and
Argos – as well as IREU500 Elite retailers
such as House of Fraser, BonPrix and
Apple – has shown that the idea of retailers
selling multiple product categories across
borders is quite a winning mix. Now there is
a new player that is likely to give even these
behemoths a run for their money: Alza.
Established in 1994, the retailer is one of
the most recognised brands in the Czech
Republic. Alza boasts a range of more than
1,600 brands across more than 50,000
consumer products, including PCs and
laptops, smartphones and tablets, games
consoles, appliances, healthy and beauty
products, to name but a few. The company
has won numerous awards for the quality
shopping customers across Europe. Alza
Store in central Europe back in 2014, and it’s
taken many of the lessons learned from that
experience and brought them to bear on its
own stores in the Czech Republic.
The Apple Store – built within one of its
own stores in Prague – marked a new way of
doing things for the retailer, led to two years
of expansion across Europe, and landed the
company second place in the 2015 EMEA
Channel Academy Awards, for the Retailer
of the Year prize in the Central and Eastern
Europe region.
The company’s expansion plan started with
the construction of a host of new distribution
shoppers across the continent.
Alza now delivers to 25 EEA countries
prominent is the Czech app, but the UK app
the Czech Republic, Alzashop and Alza media.
“More
competition
in online
shopping
means better
choice for the
consumer”
Jiri Maley, Alza
which automatically detects the appropriate
pictures, product reviews, ratings and
additional product recommendation. A ‘Price
watch’ feature allows customer to receive an
email alert if the price of the product changes.
“Alzashop.com is one of the most successful
online stores not only in the Czech Republic,
but on a European scale,” says Tomáš
Havryluk, vice-chairman, Alzashop.com.
“According to a study by GfK, from the
perspective of internet trading, Alzashop.com
is among the most advanced in the European
market. Almost 40% of technical product
sales in the Czech Republic are realised over
com exceeds 300,000 users every day.”
Now the company is looking to make a
much deeper expansion into the UK and
Germany, with stores as well as an increased
online and mobile presence, as it looks
overseas to replicate the success it has seen in
its home market.
Alza: coming soon to a UK
high street near you?
Alzashop.com’s vice-chairman, Tomáš Havryluk, and head of international marketing,
Jiri Maly, discuss taking on retail’s biggest beast. Paul Skeldon listens in
Imagecredit:Alza

Lead interview 21
The value of UK expansion
Jiri Maly, Alza’s head of international
marketing explains: “The UK is a very
important part of our international
with UK shoppers.
“We like to try and make things as simple as
The move into the UK market is
immediately after the Brexit vote. While the
that now is still the right time for Alza to
move into the UK.
after the doom and gloom surrounding post-
Web performance
DIMENSION SCORECARD
internetretailing.net/organisations/
IREU 2016
Imagecredits:Alza

Case studies22
House of Fraser:
setting standards
HOUSE OF FRASER is already an Elite
retailer in the InternetRetailing UK Top500
Function deﬁnes form for House of
Fraser’s plain but innovative app
Web performance
Cross-channel
DIMENSION SCORECARD
internetretailing.net/organisations/RHOF
IREU 2016

Case studies 23
Zara: state-of-the-art app
2015 WAS A boom year online for both
fashion retailer Zara and its owner Inditex,
which also owns Massimo Dutti. In that year,
this, Zara has ramped up its app presence
European retailers how it should be done.
Its website is one of the fastest around, with
the average load time for all of Zara’s domains
coming in at 3s – with its UK website loading
fastest at 2s and its Hungarian site at 2.8s.
For this reason, the site managed to achieve
a near perfect score of 96 out of 100 in the
IREU500 research.
The company runs 16 websites across 16
shopping for each country. But it is Zara’s
beautifully designed, with easy navigation and
clear, plentiful images that show clothes from
Currently available only in the UK, France
and Germany, the app does has limited reach.
features, such as a scanner and location
services and multiple ways to share what you
have found. Since these basics are missing
from many other retailer apps, their inclusion
It features a centralised account so that
when logged in, the user can move across
settings. However, what really sets its apart
an account before they can buy.
process, then simply requests a password
complete. This removes one of the biggest
barriers to getting users to sign up and buy.
The Zara app has
several clever features
Imagecredit:Zara
Web performance
Cross-channel
DIMENSION SCORECARD
internetretailing.net/organisations/RZAR
IREU 2016

12 approaches that work24
12 approaches that work
Fast load
times on mobile
While going mobile is essential, getting
that mobile experience right is also crucial.
Giving shoppers the ability to browse,
research, share and buy on mobile is
no good if takes ages to load and causes
frustration. Clear and user-friendly design
is essential, along with optimising content
so that it loads rapidly and is easy to use.
size terms, not megabytes) images, clear
buttons, easy navigation and clear thought
as to what content is really needed on the
site can all help make the site much easier
to use on mobile.
Keeping it light, with low resolution
pictures, not too much text, minimal links
and simple framework design can all make
apps load quickly, which is crucial for the
majority of shoppers.
The best retailers in the Top500 all
had very short mobile site loading times
because they had applied these principles
at the early stages of thinking about their
mobile strategies.
2
Go mobile
from the off
The UK leads the way in mobile adoption
and this summer saw more than 50%
of retail sales coming through mobile,
according to the IMRG. Other countries
in Europe are not at that level yet but
European shoppers are rapidly becoming
mobile-centric too, so it won’t be long
before they are also managing their
shopping processes via their smartphones.
Retailers everywhere need to be ready.
terms of redesigning websites as well
as considering how mobile disrupts
traditional sales models. Shoppers often
now loop back from the discovery and
research stages of the purchase process to
visit the store to check out the goods, to
showroom the best price and then to buy
on a desktop at a later date. It is therefore
vital to rethink how shoppers might behave
and allow them to do so, which means
retailers mobilising everything they do.
1
Across Europe, as retailers get to grips with the importance of mobile
to consumers, there is still much that they still need to do to deliver the
kind of mobile experience that shoppers crave. Retailers looking at

12 approaches that work 25
Store locators and
store information
What makes mobile so crucial, be it an app
or mobile web, is its ability to pull together
channels by being the cross-channel glue
that binds a retail business together. And
doing this is to make a real feature of store
locator functionality.
Of the Top5 retailers in the IREU500
functionality, with the likes of House of
based on a shopper’s current location.
They all feature addresses, maps and
ability to see if the goods the shopper is
This ties together shopping, store
locators and the store to create a nifty
the act of shopping. This is precisely what
mobile should
4
The importance of
well-designed apps
website is essential, but a growing number
With apps now coming up in searches and
websites, the retailers need to look more
this in spades but what constitutes
‘well-designed’? In essence, any app can
kitchen sink, built into it, but what’s more
important than scope is making it slick
the shopper needs them.
Apple’s Apple Store app is a great
with minimal menu options that seem
and beautifully.
need is to be transactional. Yet only 30% of
yourself this question: what is the point of
getting someone to use your app then not
letting them spend money?
3
House of Fraser makes it
easy to ﬁnd a nearby store
for shoppers who are using
their smartphones

Transferable
baskets
The key thing in any cross-channel strategy
is to allow any shopping basket to be
seamlessly transferred between those
channels. There is nothing more frustrating
than browsing on your mobile during the
tablet, your basket is once again empty. Of
apps, very few look into solving this
transferable basket problem. Those that do,
however, do so really well.
The stand-out among them is
BonPrix, which is part of the Otto Group.
Not only can shoppers transfer their basket
between BonPrix’s site and app once they
are logged in, but they can also transfer
their baskets between Otto Group apps
and websites too. So you can grab a few
high-fashion items on BonPrix’s site,
then move to its other sites and carry on
shopping before checking out in one go.
While many retailers are starting to let
shoppers transfer baskets between app,
web and device – so long as they are logged
league and sets the bar high.
7Loyalty
schemes
Many retailers have run loyalty schemes
for decades now and they have proved to
be a hugely successful way for most brands
to keep their customers spending with
them. The mobile age has the potential to
shift loyalty onto devices and incorporate
it into a range of processes already up and
running, both online and in-store. Loyalty
schemes built into apps at a fundamental
level can encourage sales, but it is the
process of integrating loyalty that many
European retailers are now wrestling with.
The leaders of the pack are using simple
card-scanning functionality to add the
physical loyalty card to the app, while
others are looking to tie it in with wallet
functionality. Either way, integrating
loyalty schemes into apps, using loyalty to
target marketing via email at the mobile
and then allowing those apps to talk to the
ways of building a cross-channel strategy.
5
BonPrix’s transferable
shopping basket is a genuinely
useful cross-channel initiative
Imagecredit:BonPrix
Mobiles
as scanners
Mobile phones come with such a wealth
of tools that they are the veritable Swiss
Army knives of the gadget world. Cameras,
screens, accelerometers, microphones
and connectivity – the list goes on and on.
Making use of these tools is yet another
way that mobile can be used to enhance all
One simple way to do this is to use the
smartphone’s camera as a scanner to
read bar codes or QR codes. These can do
everything from adding loyalty or payment
cards to an app, to helping price and stock
check when in store, through to learning
more about products.
For many grocery retailers, the scanner
has already been used to let shoppers scan
the items they want to click and collect, or
have delivered as they run out of things in
their homes.
The use of scanner technology shouldn’t
be underestimated. All shoppers
understand the concept, it empowers them
and it can form an interesting extra facet
to your app or m-website, acting as a link
between the physical and digital world.
6

12 approaches that work 27
Context and
personalisation
Mobile and cross-channel retailing gives
retailers a chance to engage shoppers in
a variety of new ways, not least based on
where they are, what they’re doing, what
the weather’s like and what they like.
This combined context and personalisation
can be useful for attempting to create
one-to-one relationships with customers,
an approach that is increasingly being
dubbed ‘hyper-personalisation’.
To date, many retailers have segmented
customer data to form groups of shoppers
that can be targeted in certain ways.
Understanding the data that the average
context, location and habits can make
these segments ever smaller and more
detailed – in theory, down to the segment
of one – which allows for better targeting
of marketing and for shoppers to receive
being blasted by broad mail-outs.
8
Talk to
customers
Don’t forget that a mobile is a
communications device too – mobile
phones were phones long before they got
smart – so retailers should try to create
two-way conversations.
Mobile is great as a personalised,
contextualised marketing channel for
retailers to push messages at shoppers, but
retailers that open themselves up to letting
customers contact them back can build
much more lasting relationships.
Social media – now a mobile-only
while the rise of chatbots to automate
conversations, such as with Facebook
personalised communications at scale.
10
Languagethatworksfor
theuser,notthelocation
With many of the retailers in the EU
actually operating not only across channels
but also across borders, language needs
to be considered. Here the adage “think
global, act local” resonates. Retailers need
to design sites and apps so that they work
well across channels, but they also need to
look at how the optimisation process based
on IP address or location can serve up the
right language for the user.
and even Google gets this wrong. When a
shopper is at home in, say, Germany, then
a retailer app or m-website is served up in
German. But when that same shopper takes
that same device to Belgium or France, he
or she doesn’t necessarily want the retailer
app – or any app for that matter – to
suddenly switch over to Flemish or French.
It’s a simple but fundamental point that
many brands fail to address and Google is
a prime example. Take your laptop abroad
and you’ll get the local Google results in the
local language. That’s a fail.
9
Augmented reality (AR) technology
combines mobile with in-store shopping
Imagecredit:Asda

AR, VR
and beyond…12
Payments via smartphones allow shoppers to leave their wallets at home
Imagecredit:Apple
Payments
matter11

Emerging practice 29
Push button future
THE LAUNCH IN the UK of Amazon Dash
buttons could herald a new era in online
shopping, making ordering things a matter of
and building product and brand loyalty for
both Amazon and the retailer attributed to
each button.
members in the US and UK at the time of
writing, enables shoppers to reorder items
at the push of a branded button that can be
detergent by the washing machine or one for
toilet rolls in the bathroom.
Each costs £4.99, with the price discounted
each press orders a replacement. Orders
Amazon app, which allows the product
barcode to be scanned by the smartphone in
order to attribute a product to each button.
The technology can be seen as a middle step
between traditional online ordering and a
world where, say, the washing machine orders
This type of automated replenishment –
currently being worked on by Bosch, Siemens,
facing facet of the Internet of Things (IoT)
and will come to pass at some point. Buttons
get shoppers used to this.
running out of something we need,” notes
Amazon Dash director Daniel Rausch. “Dash
are designed to make that moment a thing
home. The buttons can be placed near those
out of and when you see supplies running low,
order more. Just press the button and your
item is on its way.”
the US since last year. There, according to
consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser,
number of the orders we see through
the process.”
In the last two months, Amazon say that
with orders placed at a rate of more than two
Paper crisis? Dash is here
to save you… although
probably not this time
Is Amazon Dash, an early example of Internet of Things
technology, set to revolutionise online and mobile retail?
Paul Skeldon reports
Imagecredit:Amazon

Emerging practice30
a minute. Four times as many Dash Button
brands are available this year compared to
last year. This marks a distinct evolution of
mobile and cross-channel retail as it uses
the mobile to manage the shopping process
rather than actually undertaking it and almost
totally cuts out the use of desktop. This could
be ‘pure m-retailing’ and IoT combined: a
wholly new form of cross-channel.
Building loyalty
From a retailer point of view, Dash usage
builds loyalty to a product. Each button
point of use by the consumer themselves. It
facilitates and encourages reordering of the
same product, which as we have seen, could
eventually be automated.
But while we will see growing use of this
technology across Europe in the coming year,
there are drawbacks. For starters, it only
works with certain, frequently replenished
items. No one is going to want a button for
every item. There is also evidence that these
buttons could make things more expensive for
consumers. Comparing prices on Dash with
a wider search for the same branded item
shows that Dash products are more expensive
– and that’s before you start looking at the
generic alternatives Dash cuts out of the loop.
This is backed up by an article by the Wall
Street Journal, which reported that to use
Dash “companies pay Amazon $15 for each
button sold and 15% of each Dash product
sale, atop the normal commission, which
typically ranges from 8% to 15%”.
These pricing issues have also been noticed
by users of HotUKDeals, the UK’s biggest
social commerce platform and founding
member of Pepper.com, a global social
commerce group. Danny Munday, general
manager of HotUKDeals, explains: “It’s
exciting to see technological advances and
products becoming available for the smart
home that are designed to help make our lives
easier. But it seems with Amazon Dash, this
comes at the expense of the consumer, who
are blind ordering without knowing the price
of convenience. Our members often comment
help other users of our community know
whether a deal price is good or not and it’s
these price changes that raise concerns about
Amazon Dash.”
According to one of HotDeals’ users, who
likes the concept of Amazon Dash, Amazon
was more expensive on some items. The
problem here from a consumer point of view
is that clicking on the Dash button means
automatically accepting the price on Amazon.
But overall, the move towards IoT
technology – albeit in a baby step – is an
interesting one that all retailers should be
aware of. It changes how people shop online
and in-store and it changes how mobile is
used, how click and collect and delivery are
managed, and it’s the start of a new era in
how retail operates. Certainly one to watch.
Is convenience worth
pressing a button without
knowing what the cost is?
Imagecredit:Amazon

New research 31
Aim for the fast lane
CUSTOMERS HATE DELAYS in being
served. This retail truism has become clearer
and clearer in the digital age, in great part
thanks to usability research showing how
even incremental improvements in page
speed times can have a radical impact on a
retailer’s overall performance.
“Online shoppers hate waiting and
there’s plenty of evidence that slower pages
lead to lower conversion rates, higher
bounce rates and an overall decrease in
visitor engagement,” says Andy Davies,
associate director for web performance with
InternetRetailing Knowledge Partner NCC
Group and an expert on site optimisation.
This is as true in the mobile sphere as it is
with desktop. A recent study by DoubleClick
found that “53% of mobile site visits are
abandoned if pages take longer than 3s to
load”. Despite this, many mobile sites don’t
achieve this. “The average load time for
mobile sites is 19s over 3G connections,”
DoubleClick noted when revealing the results
of the study. “That’s about as long as it takes
to sing the entire ‘Alphabet Song’!”
For busy retailers, it may seem that
shoppers are being unreasonable in their
expectations, but it’s important to realise
we often can’t help ourselves but to click
away. “It’s not that shoppers are being
impatient,” says Davies, “it’s just that
subconsciously people are aware of even
sub-second waits, and a delay of just a few
seconds increases our stress levels and forces
us to concentrate harder.”
In itself, this explains why the idea of a
Speed Index (see boxout overleaf), which,
in Davies’ words, measures “how long the
visible part of the page takes to complete” is
so powerful. While it may initially seem an
overly abstract notion, the Speed Index we’ve
used in our research is actually “a useful
proxy for a visitor’s experience”.
Key ﬁndings
How are European retailers performing
here? In this article, while we’ll touch on
desktop performance, we focus largely on
mobile, where NCC Group assessed mobile
performance via emulated browser rendering.
• IREU Top500 retailers’ mobile web
performance was best by Hungarian and
Finnish retailers. In these countries, the
Speed Index was 16% lower than the overall
average for the Top500.
• The quickest full-page load time was
achieved by Belgian and Dutch retailers,
18% quicker than the average IREU Top500
load time.
• The fastest average time to visual
completeness is by Ireland, Hungary, and
France-localised websites, with an average
of 5.3s, 15% quicker than the overall average
for the Top500.
But despite the research revealing such
granular detail, it’s intriguing that regional
variations within the Speed Index are
fast sites and slow sites right across Europe,”
says Davies. “Some multi-country sites are
consistently fast across all the countries the
retailer operates in, and others vary from
country to country. This seems to be due to
technology itself.”
When it comes to speed, retailers’ mobile performance is patchy across
Europe. Our research shows companies need to pay close attention to
improving the load time of mobile sites, suggests Martin Shaw

New research32
Zooming out, do retailers understand the
importance of speed, of consumers not having
to wait? Davies says the picture is patchy.
“Some retailers understand that being fast
is important, but it’s also clear from the
results that many retailers don’t treat it as
a priority,” he notes. “There are some really
fast retail sites across Europe, but there are
many that have large pages, made up of many
components and so are slower to download.”
Mobile growth
It’s worth reiterating that this is particularly
important at this juncture because we’re at
a point where shoppers across Europe are
becoming more and more comfortable with
the idea of shopping on mobile. As in the UK,
mobile growth is outstripping even some of
the most optimistic predictions.
“For some retailers [mobile represents]
more than half their revenue but yet overall
mobile conversion rates remain lower than
their tablet and desktop counterparts,” says
Davies. “One of the biggest problems with
many of the sites is they’re trying to scale
content is downloaded but never displayed,
the images are too large so phones must
shrink them, and there’s just too much
JavaScript on many pages.
“There needs to be a mind shift amongst
retailers, they need to think about how to
start with mobile, how to deliver a great
mobile experience – and then enhance it for
shoppers who have larger screens, reliable
internet connections and powerful desktops.
Some retailers have demonstrated that a fast
mobile experience is possible so the other
retailers could achieve that too.”
This begs the question of what do the
best-performing retailers do that other
retailers don’t? While the research doesn’t
approaches, Davies has overarching advice.
“Retailers
need to think
about how
to start with
mobile, how
to deliver a
great mobile
experience”
Andy Davies
NCC Group
“Everyone’s experience of the web is
iPhones, some older ones, others might have
Android phones; people might access the web
and all these factors lead to page load speeds
“To get a real-world understanding of what
visitors experience, retailers shouldn’t just
customers’ shoes and get older iPhones, or
mid-range Samsung or Motorola phones,
walking down the street or even on a train.
“Ideally retailers should use ‘Real User
Monitoring’ (RUM), which allows them to
measure every visitor’s experience across
business metrics – there are some startling
is a feature, it’s all about reducing friction
and making the shopping experience as easy
through a website as fast as they could a
paper catalogue, how would that change
their behaviour?”
Desktop load times
While we’ve focused on mobile here, it’s also
worth remembering that many – and, for
some retailers, most – purchases now aren’t
made via one channel. Rather, customers will,
for example, do research via mobile before
purchasing via desktop or in-store.
It follows that, even as mobile becomes a
more important channel, it’s not enough for
retailers to put money and development time
channels. Rather, the ideal is for a customer
skipping from one channel to another never
to have to wait too long in any channel.
Consistency here is key.

New research 33
In terms of desktop performance, we found
that retailers in Norway, the Netherlands and
Denmark scored best in terms of Speed Index
ratings. Looking in more detail, we also found
the following:
• Customers in Italy were able to see
something on the page, ‘render time’, in
less than 3s. This was 7% quicker than the
average for the Top500.
• The quickest time for the full page to load
was observed for Belgian retailers. The
average time for retailers in Belgium was 9%
quicker than the average for the Top500.
• The quickest time achieved for the visual
completeness was 7.9s, 9% quicker than the
average Top500 performance.
To return to where we began, wider usability
research suggests that even incremental
Mobile Website Speed: Country averages
Average mobile website speed of localised Top500 websites – fastest to slowest
IREU 2016
Hungary
Finland
Republic of Ireland
Czech Republic
France
Norway
Austria
Netherlands
United Kingdom
Spain
Speed Index explained
Speed Index is a measure of how quickly the
visible parts of a web page are displayed. Speed
Index is worked out by looking at the video
frames of a page as it renders. Each frame is
given a score for visual incompleteness above
the fold. So the score is 100% for a blank screen
and 0% for a visually complete page.
The next step is to multiply that score by
the number of milliseconds since the last
frame (or since the beginning of the test if
out the Speed Index is to add these numbers
together. The total is the Speed Index score.
For more on how this works, go to:
http://etail.li/speedindex

Conclusion
IT’S TEMPTING, WHEN looking at the European retail market,
us
really
Editors: Chloe Rigby
and Jonathan Wright
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Conclusion34

IREU Top500 Mobile and Cross-channel Report @ 2016

IREU Top500 Mobile and Cross-channel Report @ 2016

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IREU Top500 Mobile and Cross-channel Report @ 2016