Australian retailers trying to reach and retain consumers online will underperform if they fail to learn from the mistakes made by their counterparts in the US, according to the Paul Marshall, executive director of Salmat DigitalForce.

Speaking at the Retail World Summit in Sydney, Marshall warned that retailers risk losing market share if they do not synchronise their strategies across different channels – otherwise known as cross-channel retailing.

“The internet has opened up a whole new channel for retailers to reach consumers, however, it’s critical that a retailer’s ecommerce business is not set up as a siloed operation.

“In the US, major retailers made the mistake of establishing their online business as a separate operation to their bricks and mortar stores, with different strategies, management and P&L statements. This gave rise to numerous customer service problems,” he said.

Read the full article at eTailToday.com.au