October 2001

Eighty-nine per cent of retailers will have a multi-channel strategy in place within 12 months, and 72 are developing one now; 44 per cent believe main benefits will be customer retention and increased revenue; and 75 per cent recognise product information management is critical to the development of their businesses. But 62 per cent admit that product information is not always consistent across channels.

These are among findings of a survey by Zygon, an enterprise software company specialising in catalogue and product information management.

The survey found that retailers believe the main benefits of multi-channel retailing will be an increase in customer retention (23 per cent), increased revenue (21 per cent) and a reduction in costs (15 per cent).

Seventy eight per cent of retailers already use four or more channels to market, the survey found, and 40 per cent use six or more channels. The most popular are physical stores and the Web, while use of catalogue and direct marketing is also popular.