cranberry panda in the news: Retail Week's 'Economics of Ecommerce'

Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, the ecommerce channel became the safest way for consumers to get what they needed during lock-down. According to Retail Week's 'Economics of Ecommerce' feature, ecommerce accounted for 20% of retail sales in February. By May, this figure had increased to 33%...that's a huge leap!

Retail Week decided to carry out an in-depth study of how the events of 2020 have changed the ecommerce landscape and just how much money goes into a successful ecommerce business. Of course, a huge part in these costs and ability to function is down to the people...and here at cranberry panda, we're all about helping the people within ecommerce find success.

Our 2020 ecommerce salary survey & insights report was included in this feature, so we wanted to share some key highlights and what we had to say in the feature!

Retail Week & the economics of ecommerce - key highlights

The 'Economics of Ecommerce' feature is a fascinating read, so do make sure to head over to Retail Week to find the full feature. For now, we thought we'd reveal some of our highlights...

• Looking at reported sales growth during lock-down, Retail Week revealed that Kingfisher, Dixon's Carphone and Sainsbury's grocery saw the biggest growth. In particular, Kingfisher reported a sales growth of 225%...that is staggering!
• Covid-19 truly has changed the face of retail in the space of six months - businesses really do need to think about an omnichannel approach moving forward. One quote really stood out: "Pre-Covid, Amazon was the catalyst for digital transformation. Now, Covid is going to finish what Amazon started." (Natalie Berg, NBK retail founder)
• When viewing the costs of a multichannel model, 40% of these are cost of good sold
• Customer acquisition costs are steadily growing, with huge investment going into marketing across many companies. However, the challenge is to retain these customers...one-off acquisition will simply not be sustainable in the long term.
• How many companies are looking into partnerships? To take on the likes of Amazon, companies have been working together to deliver the goods. For example, a partnership between M&S and Ocado going live in September means Marks & Spencer's can finally sell food online.

The competition to find ecommerce talent

When it comes to ecommerce talent, cranberry panda are your experts! We provided salary benchmarks to show how investing in talent with attractive salary packages is an integral factor in attracting the best digital & tech-driven employees. However, this isn't the only thing that matters anymore. Our Business Development director, Curtis, shared: "Investing in recruitment of a good team isn’t just down to offering a competitive salary anymore. Businesses need to offer challenges, new technology and a comfortable way of working.”

"Competition for talent was already high, as people were taking charge of their career paths and working to realise their goals. So, bigger companies that people would once jump at the chance to work for found that fast growth start-ups, more tech-driven businesses, were starting to get the attention of top ecommerce talent.”

CEO of Ocado Solutions, Luke Jensen, added: “Tech talent is competed for and those people want to go somewhere where they’re solving problems. Retailers are not tech companies, most of them find it difficult to recruit tech talent.

When looking for ecommerce jobs, the top talent are looking for something special. Post-Covid, the competition will be even higher - with so many people adapting to working from home, employers will need to make sure teams are able to work remotely and that mental well being is a priority.

Looking for more ecommerce recruitment insights?

If you want to hear more of the ecommerce recruitment insights we provided for the Retail Week feature, you can download a free copy of our ecommerce salary survey report below!