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'Embrace the Internet' retailers told
By Wang Yanlin |
April 12, 2012, Thursday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
MARKETING has become increasingly technology-driven in an age featured by the popularity of e-commerce, and traditional retailers should embrace the Internet, participants said at a forum in Shanghai yesterday.
"Customers are now really at the center of our business," said Liu Changxin, information director of Beijing Wangfujing Group, at the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit. Wangfujing is a leading domestic retailer which has nearly 30 department stores in China.
"Customers are more intelligent, being able to compare products, prices and everything with the help of technology," Liu said. He noted it is very often that people come into their shops, find a product, check the price on the Internet, and leave.
"It is a challenge for brick-and-mortar shops to retain customers in the face of e-commerce," said Wen Xiaohua, global business services associate partner with IBM. "But also, online business operators are just as eager to construct their infrastructure in the real world."
Wen said the future is likely to be that online and off-line retailers will interact more to better serve clients in a customer-centered age.
For example, a traditional retailer can better understand their customers with the help of digital tools to collect, track and analyze information, and carry out online marketing to attract customers to real stores.
At the same time, retailers using e-marketing should respect privacy of customers for a sustainable growth of this relatively new business means.
Kinnam Lau, a marketing professor at Faculty of Business Administration of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said marketing professionals should learn to carry out e-commerce with customers' permission, protection of their privacy and precision.
To cultivate more talents of e-marketing, Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiaotong University, partnered with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and IBM, will introduce a program in Shanghai to teach EMBA students how to market in an information age.
"Customers are now really at the center of our business," said Liu Changxin, information director of Beijing Wangfujing Group, at the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit. Wangfujing is a leading domestic retailer which has nearly 30 department stores in China.
"Customers are more intelligent, being able to compare products, prices and everything with the help of technology," Liu said. He noted it is very often that people come into their shops, find a product, check the price on the Internet, and leave.
"It is a challenge for brick-and-mortar shops to retain customers in the face of e-commerce," said Wen Xiaohua, global business services associate partner with IBM. "But also, online business operators are just as eager to construct their infrastructure in the real world."
Wen said the future is likely to be that online and off-line retailers will interact more to better serve clients in a customer-centered age.
For example, a traditional retailer can better understand their customers with the help of digital tools to collect, track and analyze information, and carry out online marketing to attract customers to real stores.
At the same time, retailers using e-marketing should respect privacy of customers for a sustainable growth of this relatively new business means.
Kinnam Lau, a marketing professor at Faculty of Business Administration of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said marketing professionals should learn to carry out e-commerce with customers' permission, protection of their privacy and precision.
To cultivate more talents of e-marketing, Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiaotong University, partnered with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and IBM, will introduce a program in Shanghai to teach EMBA students how to market in an information age.
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