Link, share, join, listen ...
Link, share, join, listen ...
Almost every interim manager or client I meet these days is talking about the ‘customer experience’ and often when discussing who is getting it right, one name always comes up…….Apple. Interesting then to see that Morrisons have just appointed an ex Apple Director to lead its online food launch as it takes its next steps into etailing. Simon Thompson who has joined this week was Worldwide Strategy and Customer Experience Director for Apple and prior to this he worked for lastminute.com. Earlier this year Morrisons bought a 10% stake in US grocery etailer FreshDirect and since then a team from Morrisons has been embedded in the US business to learn how to etail and build the business for the UK market. Recent figures show the UK online grocery sector is worth £4.8bn and is expected to double by 2015.
Morrisons is also close to launching its non-food internet offer with Scott Weavers-Wright (founder of the acquired Kiddicare) at the helm. With these two appointments Morrisons is taking a serious but considered step into etailing, and with Dalton Philips seemingly not putting a foot wrong since taking over at Morrisons it will be exciting times ahead for the business.
With the other big grocery multiples already established in online retailing, have Morrisons left it too late to make a major impact in the sector or with the expected growth are there going to be even more reasons to shop at Morrisons?
Jonathan Flynn is Head of Retail at Interim Partners
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
To ensure your blog response is published please provide your first and second name together with an email address that matches the one you used when registering on the IP site. Blog responses will only be published if we can identify who you are and/or that you are registered with Interim Partners. Please click here if you wish to register
September 16th, 2011 at 6:15 am
It featured strategy when provided guarantees for retail business solutions and business in the Internet to make it greater credibility among customers and build confidence among companies to strengthen the role of purchasing power in line with the policy of supply and demand between supplier and consumer until now Internet commerce depends on several methods without laws guaranteeing all rights between all
September 16th, 2011 at 7:02 am
They will need to be careful.
They are in danger of trying to become a me2 in an economic cycle that is shrinking real disposable income across UK and Europe
Many businesses are struggling in the non food sector e.g. Comet, as consumers stop buying all but necessaries.
The global credit crisis has not reached bottom, businesses need to watch they do not get caught in the chase for more when in fact the markets are shrinking and will continue to do so for some time to come until they rightsize
September 19th, 2011 at 7:55 am
At last . A breath of Fresh Air. A major retail corporate taking the blinkers off and not recruiting someone with umpteen years of retail experience.
September 22nd, 2011 at 10:23 am
There is a fundamental difference in the customer experience in buying and using an Apple with that of buying a can of beans in Morrisons (be it in a shop or online). AND this is critical to understanding how best to develop genuine points of difference. John Lewis seems to be one of the few UK retailers that is best managing the customer experience with UK customer. One of the reasons for this is that it is a brand embedded in the middle class psyche of England for the last 60 years. The competitive pressure in the supermarket sector and the relatively high turnover of management at all levels in such businesses mean that there is little chance of a genuine customer experience initiative lasting more than a couple of years. A genuine and positive customer experience delivered reliably ALL the time is a question of company culture and not some marketing initiative by a bushy tailed marketing manager. It starts from the top ie. a Steve Jobs type and over the years permeates throughout the entire organisation which is what you now have with John Lewis. As a partnership John Lewis takes a very long term view on any short dips in profit that may result from such activity and allow it to build a sense of trust with its customers. There is a genuine sense of duty to the customer at all levels. There is a great episode in Tom Wolfe’s novel “The Right Stuff” He describes the complete drive and passion that existed in NASA during the Apollo programme. The door man to the Kennedy Space Centre was asked by a journalist what his job was; the doorman, who basically opened the doors to visitors and swept the reception area, replied “Why Sir my job is to help put an American on the Moon’…and he meant it. Until you get a comparable reply from a comparable low paid employee of a supermarket; the desire for a genuine positive customers experience online or off is a pipe dream.