Stop telephonin’ me

What could be easier than picking up the phone and ordering a pizza? Ordering it online, apparently.

Last year, Domino’s reportedly took in one third of its delivery orders digitally, and is showing buoyant market growth for the first time since being hit by the recession. 

Online shopping is a hardly a new trend, but that doesn’t mean most brands aren’t taking their time in making the most of the opportunities it offers.

Waitrose would no doubt shudder to be classed as the Dominos of supermarkets, but it is also an established player getting in on the online act. After years of channeling the bulk of its online delivery service through Ocado, Waitrose revealed this month that it will be using it’s (recently revamped to the tune of £10m) website to compete directly with its partner.

So, what’s the secret to success for brands online? We recently carried out an e-commerce benchmarking study, reviewing 35 retailers and e-tailers from the online customer’s perspective.

The companies that scored high were the ones that got the details right:

-      simple process to pay

-      sending items efficiently

-      fixing problems with minimal fuss

Obvious things, you’d think. But only two were nailing it consistently – Amazon and Net-a-porter (no surprises there, then). The rest are still playing catch up.

 
A more detailed report of the results of the Wolff Olins e-commerce study will be published on 22 May 2011.

 (Amy Norman)

Would you invite Sainsbury’s round to tea?

Sainsbury’s has announced that it plans to let doctors open surgeries (for free) in their supermarket stores. Why? “It’s part of our wider agenda to play a bigger part in the community.”

A nice sentiment, and on message in a 21st Century rife with social networks and endless means of connection with friends, family and strangers. From Facebook to Foursquare, provided you’re in possession of a smartphone and a healthy dose of nosiness you can enter a community of hundreds, thousands, millions, at the touch of a button anywhere, anytime. And you don’t even have to seek these networks out – Facebook Connect means your friends can follow you around the internet, and every brand/company/TV programme/corporate or corporeal being can create one thanks to companies like Ning (which saw its one millionth social network created using its self serve platform in 2009).

But I think Sainsbury’s are alluding to a different type of community. One characterised by exchanging pleasantries as you defrost your windscreen before the school run in winter, watering each other’s plants during holidays in summer, yellow Neighbourhood Watch stickers (80s reference alert), tea, gossip, minutiae. And, more importantly, one played out in the real, not the virtual, world.

And perhaps they’re on to something. Arguably, as the Irish economy teeters on the brink and students in the UK re-ignite riots last seen in the 60s, we need a sense of community – and the support (emotional and practical) that offers - now more than ever.

In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in appetite for activities that engage the community, bringing them together in the real world – like:

The Big Lunch - was set up in the UK to encourage people across the country to hold street parties like those traditionally held back in the 40s (think VE day); in 2009 around a million people took part, holding parties in 8,263 different locations in order to meet neighbours and stoke up what they call Human Warming;

Underground supper clubs – 2010 has seen and increasing number of people in urban centres turn away from the often impersonal, stuffy expensive restaurants towards a more intimate experience with fellow diners from their local area at supper clubs held by chefs/amateurs in their homes, such as The Old Hat Club in London, or Ted & Amy’s in New York.

And, this appetite for local and community-focused has created opportunities for brands, particularly in the food industry e.g. Waitrose promotes its support of small, local suppliers through its Small Producers Charter and enables customers to vote in-store for the local community charitable initiative they would like the store to donate to that month; a big selling point for Whole Foods is their adaptation to the community around them, and their ‘5% Days’ when 5% of their profits are donated to a local not-for-profit or educational organisation.

But Sainsburys is a large, public company with a big financial agenda – in the 6 months to October this year, their profit rose by 8.2% to £370 million compared to last year.  It is most often compared to Tesco – the behemoth of supermarket chains. With half a million staff worldwide, around 2,500 stores in the UK, and revenues (online & in-store) from a huge range of products beyond groceries, including clothes, household goods & electricals and financial services, resulting in pre-tax profits of £3.2bn last year, Tesco does not spring to mind when you think ‘local’ and ‘community-orientated’.

Another UK-based supermarket, Budgens, has, arguably, a more valid claims to being part of the community through its partnership with the Post Office – a public service that has long served as the focal point for communities nationwide, and which has suffered severe cut backs and closures in recent years. Andrew Thornton, owner of Budgens on Haverstock Hill in London where the Post Office has just re-opened after 6 years of campaigning by local people and which now offers customers postal services over the counter for longer, says: “For me, food stores need to be the centre of the community and post offices are one of the best examples of that – we are tied to the community which is great”.

In that context, it’s interesting to consider Sainsbury’s claim. Is it a giant looking for greater footfall and post-justifying on the basis of community? Or a business using its capital to make useful, relevant partnerships that genuinely benefit their local people?

No doubt, it is difficult to swallow at this stage that a multi-stored, multi-million-pound generating chain of superstores could be part of any community other than the Square Mile. But, ultimately, what they say now is incidental – the proof is in the experience. So, I guess we will have to wait and see…

By Amy Norman