Retail Sites Are Adopting New Features - Business Insider

Amazon is forcing businesses to pick up the pace and change their retail websites.?

In order to compete with the e-commerce giant, retailers including Macy's, Saks, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany & Co. are racing to improve their sites,?Rachel Strugatz at Women's Wear Daily reports.

"[Amazon is] just revolutionizing retail. I don?t think any other adjective or any other verb would suffice. They are changing the way every retailer on the planet is thinking about retailing, and if they aren?t, they should be thinking about it differently because of Amazon,? Nomura Equity Research analyst Aram Rubinson told WWD.

Retailers will have to adopt these four features to keep up:?

1. Free shipping, or at least free returns.?
2. Loyalty programs to reward the best customers. Retailers are basing these off of airlines' programs, where the more you buy, the more perks you get.
3. Video merchandising. Similar to Zappos.com, shoppers want to see a video demonstration of the products online to see their size and fit.
4. Fulfilling orders from their brick-and-mortar stores as well as from central warehouses. This method increases the pool of availability and gets the products to customers faster.?

DON'T MISS: How Tory Burch Created A $2 Billion Fashion Empire In Less Than A Decade >

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/retail-sites-are-adopting-new-features-2012-10

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