John Lewis is a grand example, above all other retailers, of a successful mul-ti-channel business. With the growth of its e-commerce site, it has been rec-ognized as the ‘Best Online Retailer 2010’ as well ‘Britain’s Favourite Re-tailer 2010’. John Lewis’ commitment to provide the same quality service in-store as well as online has placed it head and shoulders above the rest.

Seeing the Internet evolve and ad-vance in the past decade has placed more pressure on businesses to face the challenge of modelling their fran-chise alternatively. Whether bricks and mortar or catalogue, businesses are abandoning their single-channel model and facing their next big chal-lenge to multi-channel. Nearly all types of consumer products are available through multiple channels as more and more consumers are embracing new shopping trends. Retailers especially, must think beyond the four walls of traditional stores and consider giving the Internet a role in their practices.

Established businesses face major challenges when expanding to multiple channels. In order to successfully sur-vive, it is vital to deliver on new levels as well as maintaining to deliver on the old. Commitments have to be made to ensure that they can carry the same service and standard across all chan-nels otherwise problems like a new website that contains faults or slow in performance, for example, could affect the business trade and image.

Over the years, John Lewis has invest-ed in integrating its multiple channels to commit to giving the best value through great products, at great pric-es, supported by great service. The partnership’s first online launch only saw 800 items on sale, abandoning

its lifelong Never Knowingly Under-sold (NKU) pledge. Now with over 100,000 products, the partnership has focused and emphasized on value, with the spring NKU online launch. It has taken the partnership’s online re-tail one step closer to the commitment that was introduced over 85 years ago and unifying the different channels.

It is just as important for businesses to understand how to make the chan-nels work together. Shoppers are becoming more sophisticated and expect retailers to provide seamless and smooth cross-channel shopping experiences, from browsing, through to ordering, purchasing and deliv-ering. Thus it is vital to provide an operation that respects customers’ channel preferences and gives them choice. John Lewis is one of the few retailers offers a wide range of shop-ping options including in-store or-dering which could be collected or delivered to the customers’ doorstep. One of the issues for businesses looking to multi-channel is to con-sider where they choose to channel-focus or customer-focus. John Lewis’

commercial success demonstrates and encourages other retailers to manage their multiple-channels by taking a customer-centric outlook rather than just channel-focus. John Lewis brings quality services and prices that can be interchangeable at all channels, giving a uniformed brand image and collec-tive identity. Loyal store customers do not feel neglected and modern cus-tomers feel welcomed and catered for.

Customer service provider Brad, in Kingston John Lewis: “The online service in-store is a very popular option for our store customers as they feel they are not having to compromise by changing channels.”

MULTI-CHANNEL SHOPPING IS THE NEXT BIG CHALLENGE FOR RETAILERS

Embracing the future

Thi Sua Tran