Fashion giant Asos has been crowned leader in the inaugural Retail Week Indicator, launched today to shine a light on the top retailers for digital proficiency.

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Asos topped the leader board, following Retail Week’s review of over 150 customer-facing digital capabilities across marketing, logistics and customer service, cross-channel and ecommerce.

The etail giant’s agility is seen as its silver bullet, which enables the business to invest shrewdly and respond to customers’ changing demands quickly. As the retail sector becomes ever-more competitive and the landscape ever-more tough, all elements of that customer journey must be seamless.

Retail Week Indicator, which reviews the customer-facing digital capabilities across 180 retailers in the UK, found Asos to lead the overall ranking despite not having some of the capabilities of those retailers with physical stores. But its prowess in putting the customer first, particularly with its comprehensive delivery and returns offer, saw it win out.

Asos’ exemplary delivery offer also helped it top the rank in the logistics and customer service category. It has overcome the limits of being an online-only retailer by offering a raft of delivery options, and is well aware of its customers’ mindset with services such as ‘try before you buy’ through Klarna, so shoppers only have to pay for items they keep.

Retail Week Indicator covers all of the customer-facing digital capabilities of a retailer today and offers a comprehensive view of the customer’s shopping journey. It pinpoints where retailers are delivering for their customers and where there is room for improvement.

Indicator identified that many retailers with physical stores need to better exploit those capabilities that drive footfall. One fifth of multichannel retailers, for example, still do not offer click and collect to their stores, while only 34% have store stock visibility online.

Removing friction in the shopping journey is also vital as customers become more savvy and less loyal to brands. Many of Indicator’s top-ranked retailers have strived to make browsing and buying experiences almost effortless. But this does not come from investing in just one element of a customer’s digital shopping journey – the whole experience needs to be seamless.

Listen to Retail Week’s head of data and research, Rebecca Marks and content director, Jennifer Creevy discuss the Indicator ranking.

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Find the full findings of Retail Week Indicator, including the winners of the rankings in all the categories, case studies and in-depth analysis.