Friday, January 12, 2007

M&S trip proves value of ecommerce

I visited 2 different M&S stores recently - one of them twice - looking for a known garment in a certain size and colour. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was passing the stores in question & just nipping in appeared to be an easy option.

I didn't get what I was looking for, but I did learn a lesson. The customer service at the stores depended heavily on the assistant I happened to talk to. One was very helpful, one tried to be helpful and one was simply not interested.

In the end, going to the website provided me with the item I wanted, as well as a smooth buying experience untainted by the variability of shop assistants' moods.

This story highlights why even a ubiquitous retailer like M&S needs an ecommerce website - until every store carries every item in every colour and size variation, customers have to gamble that what they want is in stock. Going online has a much higher chance of finding what you want without wasting time.

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