Get what you want, when you want

May 11, 2015

Clothes, it has been said, make the man. With the advent of eCommerce, the opportunities to source and buy clothing (among other things) have increased exponentially. Once limited to the high street, shoppers now have an array of options both within their country and without. Home delivery, Pick-Up-Drop-Off, click and collect are some of the ways in which customers can now get that velour jumpsuit that's all the rage.

With smartphones and tablets aplenty, consumers hold the world in their hands. Smartphone use is growing rapidly, with global sales increasing by 19 per cent, or $346 million from 2013, to reach $115bn in Q4, 2014. A recent report by the BRC-Google Online Retail Monitor for the first quarter of 2015 found that smartphone searches for retail have increased 54% year on year. Searches on other handheld devices such as tablets also increased 11% over the same period.

Director General of the British Retail Consortium Helen Dickinson commented: "The latest BRC-Google figures show that UK consumers are making greater use than ever of handheld devices to shop online, particularly where it comes to buying clothes."

As we become more used to shopping wherever and whenever, geographic boundaries also continue to slip away. Google retail director Peter Fitzgerald added: "Mobile continues to drive growth in the UK and this remains the case with apparel in the first quarter of the year. Interestingly, emerging markets still see strong growth from tablets, however smartphones supercharge growth for overseas consumers of UK brands."

We now live in a world where we are 'always on'. The ability to access the Internet through our mobile device has really changed the nature of online retail. To use a phrase made famous by Verruca Salt 'I want it now' (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for those who are currently furrowing their brow at that reference) us online consumers are generally quite impatient, we want to be able to shop when, and how, it suits us, and we also want to choose how we receive those goods. This is evidenced by the continued growth of click and collect services, particularly in the UK. wnDirect has recently launched the world's first international click and collection solution, wnCollect, to help get your must-haves just where you want them.