By Dean McElwee, Director, Global E-Commerce Collaboration, Stanley Black & Decker
Interesting stats coming out of eMarketer on their UK eCommerce growth forecast (see below). Like most major markets, the UK saw a decent leap during the pandemic. What you may not know is that the UK is one of the early adopters of e-commerce along with China and South Korea. These countries are the leaders globally in terms of e-commerce penetration. It’s natural then that growth may be slower than for example Indonesia, which is rapidly gaining penetration.
But dig beneath the surface, and there are some interesting dynamics. Amazon for example is expected to keep on its growth path in the UK, whilst Sainsbury’s and Tesco hardly shift the needle much.
What Tesco and Sainsbury’s have done well is focus on their retail media offering. This has meant they are able to monetise the eyeballs through their sites. But what of assortment expansion? I would encourage both retailers to consider marketplaces. Here’s why they should:
- Customer base which is used to shopping online
- Highly Developed 3P infrastructure for deliveries in the market
- More retail media dollars
There is precedent in the UK. Kingfisher has their B&Q marketplace powered by Mirakl, which has quickly grown to be a decent contributor to GMV.
