Retailers need a satisfactory customer experience, if they don’t want to suffer the same fate as Topshop
News filtered in last week of Topshop’s Australian operations unfortunate demise. Administrators have been called in after the chain lost around $3 million last year.
While it’s hard, from the outside looking in, to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, a few have their opinions.
Fairfax’s Melissa Singer, for one, listed ‘Six Reasons Why Topshop Failed In Australia’ – from growing too fast, to being too expensive, to having unpleasant stores and just getting bad press.
An important factor, that Singer and others (like Dana McCauley of news.com.au) have alluded to is the brand’s struggles in setting up an online service that could satisfy the needs of customers.
“Topshop Australia’s Facebook page is littered with complaints from customers who placed orders online, but are yet to receive the goods,” writes McCauley. “Two weeks ago, its social media staffer posted a note advising that, “due to an influx of customer service enquiries”, there would be “a delay in response” to complaints.”
Singer, in another article co-written with her colleague Nick Toscano, adds: “the UK chain was slow to embrace online retailing in Australia, only launching a local version of its web shop in March this year.”
Further, as Eli Greenblat explains in his piece for The Australian, Topshop’s demise is indicative of a weakening retail sector – the cost of running a business is going up, while the willingness of consumers to spend money is going down.
If you want your retail business to thrive, you have to excel in a lot of areas. One of those areas, that’s becoming increasingly important to a retailer’s success, is their online service.
A great online retailing experience runs from the first time a customer lays eyes on your website, to the delivery of their purchase. Are you doing all you can online to give you and your business the best shot?