Retail stores will evolve from places where people purely transact, to hubs where consumers can experience parts of a product range before ordering with a range of payment and delivery options.

Speaking at the first day of the Ecommerce Expo conference in London, Simon Calvert, trading director at women’s retailer Bonmarché, also said that his company is looking to improve in-store ordering, increase payment options and work on last mile delivery.

Of course, he’s not the first to suggest that the rise of e-commerce will turn physical stores into more experiential, brand-building areas. From consultants to hedge fund managers, many industry experts are arguing for a scaling back of store footprints, paired with a more seamless omnichannel strategy.

Several sessions at the event focused on how different retailers are approaching this trend, and best practice for website building.

Calvert pointed out that e-commerce is just a virtual version of your shop, and that customer satisfaction should really be the only KPI (Key Performance Indicator). In the last two years, changes like more targeted digital marketing, user testing of new layouts and photos, and things like push notifications and local search, have doubled e-commerce sales.

However, despite this turnaround online, Bonmarché has issued a profit warning, citing weak demand on the High Street and a hot summer translating to lower footfall.

“We have continued to improve our proposition, particularly our digital capabilities, reflected in the strong online sales,” commented chief executive Helen Connolly in a statement. “We remain focused on exploiting the opportunity afforded by the increasing demand for online shopping, whilst modernising the store offer and customer experience,” she added.

In a panel session, the merits of user-generated content (UGC) were debated, with Daniel McGinley, head of e-commerce and digital marketing for footwear retailer Rocket Dog Europe, explaining that they tried linking user content from shoppable Instagram posts on the homepage.

“However, we found that it slowed page load time so much that the commercial department asked that we take it off,” he said, adding that it was moved to more relevant pages of the site.

Maria Murphy, head of user experience at beauty retailer Feel Unique, said the jury was still out on how much value UGC can give to product pages, stating it really depends on the brand and product. She added that UGC seems to work better on lower-priced beauty products than those at the higher end.

Ultimately, website optimisation requires constant testing and tweaking, with Marks & Spencer site optimisation manager Duncan Hood stating that after making webpages responsive, his team has worked to add larger, zoom-able images and videos.

McGinley added that things as simple as the colour of the checkout button can have a surprising impact. “Changing the add to basket button to green brought a 10 per cent increase in conversion rates.”

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