The digital revolution can help spark a ‘retail renaissance’, Dan Cobley, MD of Google UK, told the World Retail Congress in London last week. Cobley said that the big winners would be the traditional retailers who also harness the power of new technology.  

Data from Marks and Spencer showed customers who shopped both online and in store were four times more valuable, while those who also used mobile spent eight times as much as high street shoppers.

Cobley told delegates: “There is a huge opportunity to bring the power of digital to stores and make it work for consumers.  In future we will not think about online and off-line, it will be a multichannel world.”

Innovations such as ‘click and collect’ are blurring the boundaries between online and physical stores, he said, while improving convenience for shoppers. 10 per cent of UK sales are now conducted in this way, but only one in eight offer the service on mobile.  

He refuted suggestion that this prevents ‘impulse buying’, as US research has shown that 37 per cent of ‘click and collect’ customers went on to purchase other goods while in store.

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