Commerce vs communication

Regarding “The 50 Top UK Retail Websites” (MW December 7), not all retailers are focusing their efforts on becoming “dot-com” retailers. Many are using the Internet as a marketing communications vehicle to support their offline retail estate. One such case, which featured in your evaluation, is our client Morrisons.

I found the methodology used to evaluate the sites particularly unfair to Morrisons’ website, which was developed as part of a brand communication campaign, not as an e-commerce site. Morrisons has considered offering an online service but, after some customer research, decided there is no demand for it yet.

The criteria used for selecting retailers to include in the evaluation also seems flawed, as it assumes a direct correlation between ad spend and online strategy. This is unreliable as different businesses use the Internet in very different ways.

The methodology for comparing brand proposition is equally over simplified. A brand proposition is more than “the colours and type faces being the same as the packaging”. John Veichmanis

Associate partner/head

PoulterNet

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