Best technology, user experience and managing the online image are considered the key focus areas for retailers’ online sales strategy, following a recent CW500 Club event on Retail IT.

As the battle of high street and online retailing continues industry experts came together to debate ideas that follow today’s digital trend. Three IT leaders discussed their views and experiences within retail IT in a session titled ‘The high street vs the internet and the lessons for other sectors’.

During the discussion the experts urged that retailers have to do more than just a straightforward IT implementation and that they can’t assume that salespeople can effectively make the difference.

With the influence of social media, retailers need to manage their online presence and ensure they are seen in a ‘good light in the virtual world’. With links on Facebook and Twitter it takes seconds for a consumer to receive feedback from hundreds of friends about a product or service, and retailers need to be on top of this.

The discussion also suggested that retailers’ IT departments need to act more swiftly in terms of developing apps and having them up and running quickly. They suggest that it isn’t about creating an app that works perfectly from day one, but that they use should let their instinct guide them and take more of a test and learn approach where bugs are fixed as they go. As Graham Benson, IT director at MandM Direct, an online-only clothing retailer put it, “If it feels right it probably is. Pick a route quickly but put checks and balances so you can stop quickly if it is not working.” “Make projects quick and iterative and don’t go for perfection – get something to market quickly and refine it.” said Benson.

Benson explained that retail has evolved in order to embrace today’s digital living where almost everything can be bought online, “Digital has ripped up the rule book…The only thing I don’t buy online is diesel and that’s because they won’t deliver.”

With twelve years experience in retail IT behind him, Benson is driving IT departments to react quickly to the changing demands of consumers and to have the attitude of, “we can if…” rather than “we can’t”. He also suggested that there is no longer expertise in technologies due to constant changes. “The pace of change is now more relentless – people in IT feel the pressure of pace all the time,” he said and added that, “As IT leaders we have to go more into leadership than management. You need to capture hearts not heads. Make people believe in what they are doing so they go the extra mile.”