Is your website your Flagship?

I heard recently that the UK’s greatest toy retailer Hamleys, has announced that they will be opening their Middle East flagship store in “The Dubai Mall “ in Dubai in the next few months. This got me thinking about the role of the website as your flagship store. 

Most major retailers now days have “flagship stores”. These are usually large, state of the art showcase stores, situated in premier shopping locations. It’s about building large environments where the retailer has a platform to fully express their brand values and full range of products.   

While these physical flagships are built at an enormous cost, date over time and are only ever seen by a small section of your customer base, why not build your website as your “Flagship” and open your cutting edge environment to millions of potential customers.  

Are Retailers in Australia investing enough in their websites to inspire consumers and deliver a similar experience? Are their websites structured to build rich customer relationships with their brands? 

We all know how customer behaviour is changing and how much browsing is done online prior to purchase. It’s time the website became the key component of any retailers marketing strategy. 

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.