Is it now essential for retailers to provide a multichannel offer?

A few major retailers have retained their stance that they don’t need to sell online. But is the single channel retail model one that can be sustained beyond the next few years, or do all retailers need to ready themselves for delivering products and services using multiple channels?

AlixPartners director Dan Murphy says the question illustrates how the retail landscape has changed, and is likely to continue changing, over the next few years.

He says: “When Asos.com first appeared, all the experts were sceptical that a pure online clothing model would work - after all, didn’t we need to try clothes on before we bought them? Turned out not. “

The difference is between how the world has been for the last 15 years, and how it will be in the future. “As an example, see how many people under the age of 20 you can find wearing a watch. They don’t, as they are not interested in ‘single use devices’ any more. The next generation of consumers will expect a full multichannel retail service. They don’t just shop online, they live online.”

Murphy continues: “My young daughters are as comfortable online as we used to be in front of the TV. The idea of a single channel retail offer for them will be as quaint as outside toilets or gas lighting would be to us.”

Murphy says multichannel retail is no longer something special: “It was a new thing for those of us who watched it emerge over the last 12 years, but for the new generation of consumers it’s about as remarkable as having a light switch to turn on the light when you enter a room.

“The only noteworthy aspect of it over the next few years will be those retailers that don’t offer it.

In two or three years time, anyone not offering a full multichannel experience will seem as dated as Marks & Spencer was when it refused to offer changing room facilities or accept credit cards.”