John Bovill: 'The single channel to market is dead'

At the recent Fieldworks event held in London on July 5, 2011, John Bovill - outgoing IT Director at Aurora Fashions – shared with an enthusiastic audience his thoughts on why he perceives the single channel to market to be dead, and how retailers are flourishing by embarking on a multi-channel journey.

John opened his engaging presentation by citing the three key themes of multi-channel retail:

- The single channel to purchase is fundamentally dead, whereas multi-channel has come alive.

- Transactional websites are now fully mature and contain all the standard characteristics that allow it to be classified as a ‘traditional’ channel to market.

- Customers no longer interact with one channel - they interact with the brand. Additionally, each channel has to complement the other, or else they will cannibalise.

Elaborating on the third point, he added that in most instances, it is in fact the same customer that is shopping across all channels – therefore, it’s vital that retailers have a consistent and seamless experience across each of these channels.

Sharing his strategy, John revealed his belief in the philosophy, ‘If it’s anywhere, it’s everywhere’ – a notion identifying that it is crucial to make all stock available to all customers, regardless of geographical location. Not only should this improve profit, but it should ultimately make for a more intelligent supply chain, too.

Another topic covered was that of price optimisation. John noted that he would certainly not be surprised if ‘yield management’ became more prevalent in the fashion sector, and commented on a recent example he observed: “Kate Middleton was recently shopping in one of our competitors. They then made a repeat order on the same stock and brought it in at a higher price because the demand was there. Once we get cuter around our demand cycles - which we will, because we’ll be truly joined up – I wouldn’t be surprised if the price models become much more sophisticated than ever before. So my view is that price optimisation is going to become more critical than it ever has been in our market.”

When quizzed during the lively Q&A session on whether future technological enhancements might arise from the West, John shared with us his bold and contentious viewpoint: “It’s going to come the other way, from the East, without a doubt. I think they’re going to be the game-changers. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but that’s where it’s going to come from. They’re far more educated, they haven’t got the dinosaur systems or anything else to deal with, and they’re starting from ground zero”.

A podcast containing highlights of John Bovill’s presentation will soon be made available on the Fieldworks Connections website. Please visit in the coming days for further coverage from this dynamic event.