Luxury childrenswear retailer, Childsplay Clothing, is driving international growth with a solution from Akeneo, the Product Experience company and global leader in Product Information Management (PIM) and Product Experience Management (PXM) solutions.

Launched in 1990, Childsplay Clothing brings the very latest designer wear for new-borns, juniors and teenagers to market quickly for its thriving fashion-conscious client base.  An early pioneer of influencer marketing, the business has successfully built a loyal client following across the UK, US and Middle East.

With ambitious plans to scale operations in these markets, it identified the need to migrate from a custom build platform to the Shopify platform and implement Akeneo’s PIM to centralise all product information across its sales channels.

In addition to its core ecommerce business, Childsplay Clothing is successfully driving social sales across its Instagram community of over 1.6million followers and is rapidly expanding its operations across key marketplace platforms. Using Akeneo’s PIM enables the business to consolidate all product data centrally on one platform, unifying its product record and ensuring everyone in the team has access to a standard set of product information tools to enrich data.

“We represent renowned fashion brands like Fendi, Versace, and Burberry, and launching new season collections quickly is essential for us. Our trendy customers depend on us to provide them with early access to the latest designs.  Any delays in making products available result in decreased value.”

“To ensure our systems can keep up with our growing business, we migrated to Shopify and adopted Akeneo.  Akeneo offers a range of options to innovate our business processes and its open platform allows us to implement pioneering techniques for increased efficiency. Currently, we utilise ChatGPT and AI functionality to retrieve data on empty product sets. This data is exported to Akeneo’s PIM, enhancing the speed and accuracy of product launches. Product data plays a vital role in bringing our website to life and delivering a seamless customer experience.”

Additionally, Akeneo enables us to create special attributes for specific products. For bespoke clients, we implement a drop ship model, and using the PIM system, we can prominently display specific delivery times to customers.” Azeem Chowdhury, Digital Lead at Childsplay Clothing, explained.

With over 10,000 new SKUs per season and two collections a year, Childsplay is driving efficiencies in product lifecycle management and accelerating speed to market as the teams use Akeneo PIM to enrich product data at the point of order placement, speeding up product information processes and contributing to more consistent, accurate product data.

Childsplay Clothing is also using Shopify Markets and Akeneo to localise pricing for international markets while maintaining product consistency.

James Barlow, Director UK&I at Akeneo commented, “Childsplay Clothing is such a dyanimc brand. It understands the needs and desires of their customers so well and has built its business around delivering to the highest standards. Product experience is at the core of the brand’s engagement with its customers and it is building a progressive international retail model that remains true to the brand’s heritage.”

The store is now the channel where consumers are most likely to make impulse purchases, according to the latest research from ADvendio, the leading omnichannel advertising solution provider.

Original research of over 1,000 UK shoppers by ADvendio showed that over half (54%) of UK shoppers say they are most likely to impulse buy in-store, compared to 41% who make unplanned purchases when shopping online and 10% who bought on impulse on social media platforms.

“While the ‘TikTok made me buy it’ era is far from over, the store is have a revival as a mecca for impulse-driven, conversion-ready shoppers,” Bernd Bube, Founder and CEO of ADvendio, commented.  “And this is prompting both retailers and 3^rd party brands to reconsider how they leverage this opportunity to connect and engage with in-store shoppers who are open to having their buying decisions influenced at the point of purchase.”

44% of the UK shoppers polled would like more digital information available to inform their buying decisions at the shelf-edge in-store, rising to 60% of Millennials, while over half (51%) would be more likely to buy a product if they were served information and content about that product digitally at the shelf-edge.  A further third (36%) said immersive digital adverts about products in the store would make them more likely to try a product they hadn’t bought before.

“As ecommerce and social engagement reaches a point of maturity, consumers are coming full circle and the shelf-edge is now the next battle ground for share of mind and share of wallet,” Bube continued.  “And, because of this, retailers are turning to the store to explore – and invest – in ways to digital reach and engage customers and, ultimately, influence their spend.”

Six in ten (61%) UK shoppers say they are now noticing more branded ads from 3^rd party brands when shopping in-store, while over a third (34%) have been influenced to try a product having seen a digitally advert at the shelf-edge in-store, rising to 50% of Gen Z.

Big Four grocer, Tesco, for example, recently announced it was adding to what is already the UK’s largest closed loop grocery media and insight platform, having rolled out digital screens in 150 stores this year.  The digital displays feature animated content to support in-store campaigns and new product launches and complement traditional POS promotional assets.

Despite economic headwinds and stubbornly high inflation, UK shoppers’ online spend intentions remain resilient, led by younger consumers, new data from Wunderkind, the leading performance marketing solution that scales one-to-one messages for retailers and brands, reveals.

Original research of 1,000 consumers in Wunderkind’s ‘Industry Pulse: Consumer Spending During Economic Uncertainty’ report showed that while UK shoppers are expressing caution, especially around non-essential and luxury purchasing, 42% plan to maintain their usual levels of eCommerce spend throughout 2023.

Almost a third (30%) of UK shoppers said they plan to cut back on essentials, a trend that has already been observed in the grocery sector, with supermarket shoppers switching from established brands to own brand products, and spending more in discount stores.

With grocery price inflation remaining close to an all-time high in May, rising at the third fastest rate since 2008, Kantar reported a 46% rise for supermarkets’ own label lines.  Meanwhile research by Pricer suggests 61% of UK consumers have now switched some of their food shop to discounters such as Aldi and Lidl.

Over half (54%) of the UK consumers polled in Wunderkind’s survey admitted to limiting their spending cuts to luxury items, with 64% cutting back on non-essential, discretionary items. However, 42% plan to maintain their usual levels of eCommerce spend in 2023, with younger demographics displaying the greatest levels of confidence; just over one-fifth (22%) of Gen Z said they feel that they need to reduce discretionary spending.

The cost-of-living squeeze is also, unsurprisingly, prompting UK shoppers to reassess the quality of the goods they buy, with 42% saying they plan to spend less often, but will turn to higher priced, better quality items when they do make a purchase. This is compared to 36% who will buy more affordable or poorer quality items.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, General Manager at Wunderkind International, commented: “Consumers already had myriad buying triggers and considerations prior to the cost-of-living crisis, and now the inflationary squeeze is making what were already convoluted spend decisions more complex.

“Shoppers’ loyalties to brands are being assessed, they’re thinking more carefully about what they can and can’t afford, and they’re being compelled to make tough purchasing decisions. For brands, this period is all about giving customers value; it’s about providing them not only with the things they want, but putting effort into retaining — and strengthening — the customer-brand relationship. Consumers’ brand allegiances are being tested, and the retailers that step up will win out in both the short- and long-term.”

To find out more about the latest consumer sentiment and spending habits and how retailers can leverage owned channel optimisation to improve customer engagement, download the Wunderkind Industry Pulse report.

Consumer demands for curated ads from trusted brands is prompting retailers to tap retail media opportunities and open up new revenue streams from monetising their first party audiences, according to the latest research from ADvendio, the leading omnichannel advertising solution provider.

Original research of over 1,000 UK shoppers by ADvendio showed the impact of customer engagement via traditional advertising was diminishing, with UK shoppers saying they ignore over half (56%) of digital advertising they see, while 54% of search ads also go unnoticed by UK consumers.

And this diminishing engagement is being caused by unpersonalised and poorly targeted advertisements and engagement strategies; 68% of shoppers say they often received ads from retailers and brands that are unpersonalised or irrelevant, and 74% report they regularly receive ads for products they aren’t interested in.  A further seven in ten (68%) also said they frequently get served content digitally that’s not relevant to them.

And, because consumers are experiencing poor quality ad experiences with 3^rd party brands, they are now wanting curate content and personalised ads served to them by the retailers they are already loyal to.  Half (50%) of those polled said they would like to receive highly curated, personalised advertisements and brand communications from the retailers they already shop with, rising to 65% of Gen Z and 62% of Millennials.  And, with two fifths (38%) saying they would be most likely to buy from a product recommendation they received from a retailer they already regularly shopped with, this is prompting retailers to adapt how they leverage and monetise their own first party data and audiences.

Commenting in ADvendio’s latest report ‘Where the Retail Media opportunities lie in 2023‘, IGD’s Global Insight Leader, Toby Pickard, said: “This is a significant opportunity for retailers to enhance their collaboration with suppliers, unlocking new opportunities for revenue and profitability as they win over marketing spend from ‘traditional’ media like digital, out of home or broadcast.  The ability to influence shoppers before they start shopping, when they get to the store or website and at the virtual or real shelf – or ‘prime, prompt, purchase’ as Tesco puts it – is a powerful one as it enables brands to focus marketing spend on particular groups such as current shoppers, lapsed shoppers, competitor shoppers or possible shoppers.”

Bernd Bube, Founder and CEO of ADvendio, commented: “Diminishing returns on traditional media ad spend, cookie depreciation and engagement levels on social media and PPC plateauing prompting lower ROI on what were previously lucrative channels is proving a perfect storm for retail media.  Those retail businesses with strong data sets realise they have a great position to benefit from this digital marketing crossroads.  Not just representing a sizable revenue opportunity, Retail Media Networks are changing the role of the retailer into media powerhouses, offering opportunities for advertisers and 3rd party brands to reach and influence highly-engaged and conversion-ready consumers.”

Key to managing returns is an understanding of how they fit into the whole proposition retailers and brands make to their customers, says Renaud Marlière, Global Chief of Business Development of Asendia.

By tracing the evolution of thinking on returns, it becomes possible to draw two clear conclusions. The first is that returns are not going to go away. The second is that the only way to really manage them is to see not just the threats but the opportunities as well.

The story began around 2010, even though returns had been a problem for a long time before that. It was clear back then that no one department or director owned the problem and therefore any initiatives to mitigate them focused on solving only one or two aspects of the problem. Jump forward 10 years and returns now benefits from a host of technologies aimed to prevent them happening in the first place, managing them more efficiently when they do happen and measuring the life-cycle of a return so it is clear just how much they are costing the retailer or brand.

The situation today, as research in February 2023 by Asendia reveals, is that retailers and brands will need to manage returns more creatively if they are manage the cost as well as meet the demands of customers for who returns are very much part of the brand experience.

For instance, when 8,000 shoppers in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Spain, across five demographics (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation) were asked to consider, when having an international order fulfilled, what would influence their decision to make a purchase currently, returns were in the top three concerns.

• 33% – understanding where my product is being shipped from so I understand the cost and  distance the product will need to travel to reach me
• 32% – preferred returns method (Paperless, drop off box, collect, postal office, in-store) are available
• 32% – grouped deliveries – so there is less packing waste/products are delivered in one go, rather than across multiple individual deliveries

These findings were broadly similar to the same question being asked for domestic orders.

Retailers and brands then need to know where to commit their investment in returns. In the same research, shoppers were asked which delivery and returns services they would be prepared to pay more for. 44% prioritised speed, 30% return in store option and 26% more choice of returns method.

In another piece of contrasting research by Asendia in the same month among 800 international retailers and brands in US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Spain, we wanted to see how they planned to respond to the trends. Among their many priorities for the next two and five years, which include reducing their operational costs, Initiating sustainability programs and trying to address staff shortages, making returns processes more efficient / less costly came in at number two.

Returns are clearly still one of the biggest headaches for retailers. 29% want to reduce volumes of returns made by shoppers, in light of the figures in the research which show that 57% felt returns volumes would increase.

The desire to tackle returns is readily understood in the context of lost income and the cost of handling them. Industry figures that show that in the US alone, shoppers returned $816 billion of merchandise in 2022.

Retailers in the Asendia research said their average returns rate on their website was 23% while in the US and Switzerland the rate was 27%. As a result, on average, it costs international retailers $25.20USD to process a domestic return, rising to $31.20USD in the US and $30.80USD in France.

In order to balance the management of their costs with consumers’ expectations, retailers and brands must invest in a digital ecosystem that is flexible and agile. However shoppers engage, they expect the entire process to feel connected, coherent and simple. They may want to order a product online, sample it instore, then have it delivered to their home. Our practical advice for retailers is to dedicate resources into integrating inventories and ordering systems across the business. A shop assistant should be able to check stock availability throughout the retail network and place an order at the store of the customer’s choosing. In this way, the retailer can never under or over-sell.

Ultimately, retailers and brands need to find the best solutions and partners with which to build this ecosystem that will enable them protect their margins and boost sales, both of which will enable them to prevent returns from becoming a bigger burden rather than an opportunity.

Consumers are laying the blame of in-store shelf gaps at the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, according to the latest research from Pricer, the world’s most trusted provider of shelf edge automation and communication solutions.

Original research of 1,000 UK shoppers by Pricer revealed 69% of UK shoppers now blame the cost-of-living for poor product availability in-store, as stubbornly high food prices and the impact of inflation production, manufacturing and logistics continues to put pressure on supply chains.  Typically, UK shoppers are reporting just under a fifth (17%) of their food shop as being unavailable on shelf when they shop in-store, while 22% of online grocery customers say their food shops are now delivered with either missing or substituted items.

Half (50%) of UK shoppers believed that the reason for increased shelf gaps they were experiencing in-store was due to suppliers struggling to meet demand due to inflationary pressures on their production and manufacturing, while a further 50% attributed poor product availability to suppliers going out of business due to rising cost-of-living.  Last month the UK’s Insolvency Service reported that 2,457 businesses went bust in March – an all time high since records began three years ago and up 16% year-on-year – while last year the number of insolvencies of food manufacturers doubled compared to levels in 2019.

Meanwhile, two years after post-Brexit trading began, 57% of shoppers say Brexit is making it harder to import grocery and food goods into the UK, contributing to shelf gaps and product availability issues.  In December, the British Chamber of Commerce warned UK businesses were still grappling with EU trading arrangements and red tape, with half of the firms it polled reporting issues with new forms, customs checks or other processes to get goods across the border.

And, with ongoing staff shortages across the logistics network, 39% of shoppers felt a lack of drivers and warehouse operatives were also causing delays to getting items on to shelf; last year the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport reported 86% of UK businesses were experiencing low levels of warehouse staff, while 60% were suffering from a shortage of drivers.

Peter Ward, Country Manager for UK & Ireland at Pricer, commented:

“It’s clear that retailers still face a myriad of supply chain disruption from a force field of factors that quite often are outside of their immediate control.  And this is putting pressure on getting stock to the store and increasing the prevalence with which shoppers are experiencing out of stocks or shelf gaps.  While shoring up and mitigating against risk within supply chains will be a key long-term focus, creating operational quick-wins to get stock that is in-store onto the shelf quickly and efficiently will help retailers uphold customer experience by minimising shelf gaps.”

Pricer’s Shelf Monitoring solution combines machine learning (ML) with camera technology, capable of automatically detecting and identifying missing items in the aisle.   It then alerts store staff through Pricer’s StoreApp or integration with existing Workforce Management Solutions (WMS) or wearables, prompting them to take action to reduce shelf gaps.

The highest value consumers, who spend the most online and order most frequently, are also the most environmentally-conscious, seeking out and spending more with brands that prioritise sustainability, the latest research in the Sustainable Global Growth and Shopper Expectations report from ESW, the global DTC ecommerce leader, shows.

ESW’s research of more than 16,000 shoppers from 16 countries revealed that 83% of consumers consider sustainability when making a purchase, increasing to more than nine out of ten (91%) cross-border online shoppers – whose average annual online spend is +4% than domestic shoppers across all product categories.

“Today’s most coveted high frequency, high spending customers prioritise sustainability when buying online and are actively modifying their behaviour according to their desire to consume and buy in a more eco-conscious manner.  To reach these shoppers brands must prioritise sustainability, transparency and positive environmental practices from day one,” commented Martim Avillez Oliveira, Chief Executive Officer, ESW – Europe and UK.

Four out of every ten (39%) Gen Z shoppers and one of every three (34%) Millennial respondents report shopping cross-border 12 or more times annually, with 73% of Millennial shoppers planning to spend the same or more online in 2023 – making this cohort the leader in global ecommerce spending this year.  94% of Gen Z and 93% of Millennial respondents reported considering sustainability when making an online purchasing decision in comparison to 88% of Gen X shoppers and 77% of Baby Boomers.

For brands and retailers looking to sell cross-border, markets with more young shoppers report prioritising sustainability criteria during their purchasing consideration phase – led by India (98%), China (94%), UAE (94%) and Mexico (93%).  Across product categories, 93% of luxury shoppers consider sustainability when purchasing ahead of beauty (87%), consumer electronics (87%) and apparel (84%).

In terms of environmentally-conscious services from brands and retailers, shoppers favour sustainable packaging and delivery, indicating environmentally friendly packaging options (46%), sustainable shipping (43%), less packaging overall (42%) and green delivery options (35%) as the options they prioritise when making an online purchase.

“Retailers can be sure customers will do more than virtue signal when it comes to sustainability with shoppers acting on their concerns for the environment.  Brands know that making and distributing environmentally conscious products is expensive, but they don’t need to overhaul entire supply chains to satisfy shoppers’ sustainability demands.  Working with partners and vendors, such as ESW, that offer carbon-neutral delivery and provide sustainable packaging helps brands meet customer expectations and support the ongoing global drive to limit the impact of consumption on the environment,” he added.

ESW provides 100% carbon neutral shipping to its clients, which include Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, J. Crew, and other leading brands extending beyond just transcontinental air freight to include first, middle, and last mile deliveries.  ESW’s offsets are achieved through the funding of renewable energy production by supporting EcoAct-verified wind farm projects.