Key
Leaders
Leaders boast high site enablement of omnichannel capabilities and ample marketing efforts across email, social media and display advertising. Leader designations’ frequency reflects a rise in baseline features as digital retail matures. Large-format retailers overwhelmingly represent Leaders; however, retailers across the spectrum are included, ranging from The Home Depot to Nordstrom and Tiffany & Co.
Undersellers
Undersellers provide baseline and advanced site features but often forgo marketing them on third-party platforms. To strengthen their positions, these brands need to make consumers more aware of their capabilities by amplifying marketing investments. In fact, 37% of retailers with above-average site scores failed to excel in digital marketing, illustrating the scale of the problem. Luxury and activewear brands most commonly fall into this quadrant, including the likes of Kate Spade and Louis Vuitton.
Streamliners
Streamliners have average to below-average deployment of site features but effectively broadcast them on digital marketing channels. These brands therefore have an opportunity for improving their site experiences to further capitalize on marketing messages and drive customer conversion. Diverse sectors are represented in this category, with grocery and beauty falling into it most frequently. Examples include Glossier, Albertsons and Williams Sonoma.
Laggards
Laggards lack site sophistication and also fail to market drive-to-store or fulfillment initiatives. As the second-largest quadrant, a smattering of verticals are represented — most frequently watches & jewelry, fashion and activewear. Laggards need to first improve their sites, then divert funds to marketing revamped capabilities.
Key
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Leaders
Leaders boast high site enablement of omnichannel capabilities and ample marketing efforts across email, social media and display advertising. Leader designations’ frequency reflects a rise in baseline features as digital retail matures. Large-format retailers overwhelmingly represent Leaders; however, retailers across the spectrum are included, ranging from The Home Depot to Nordstrom and Tiffany & Co.
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Undersellers
Undersellers provide baseline and advanced site features but often forgo marketing them on third-party platforms. To strengthen their positions, these brands need to make consumers more aware of their capabilities by amplifying marketing investments. In fact, 37% of retailers with above-average site scores failed to excel in digital marketing, illustrating the scale of the problem. Luxury and activewear brands most commonly fall into this quadrant, including the likes of Kate Spade and Louis Vuitton.
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Streamliners
Streamliners have average to below-average deployment of site features but effectively broadcast them on digital marketing channels. These brands therefore have an opportunity for improving their site experiences to further capitalize on marketing messages and drive customer conversion. Diverse sectors are represented in this category, with grocery and beauty falling into it most frequently. Examples include Glossier, Albertsons and Williams Sonoma.
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Laggards
Laggards lack site sophistication and also fail to market drive-to-store or fulfillment initiatives. As the second-largest quadrant, a smattering of verticals are represented — most frequently watches & jewelry, fashion and activewear. Laggards need to first improve their sites, then divert funds to marketing revamped capabilities.
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Average
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Average Line
Key
Leaders
Leaders boast high site enablement of omnichannel capabilities and ample marketing efforts across email, social media and display advertising. Leader designations’ frequency reflects a rise in baseline features as digital retail matures. Large-format retailers overwhelmingly represent Leaders; however, retailers across the spectrum are included, ranging from The Home Depot to Nordstrom and Tiffany & Co.
Undersellers
Undersellers provide baseline and advanced site features but often forgo marketing them on third-party platforms. To strengthen their positions, these brands need to make consumers more aware of their capabilities by amplifying marketing investments. In fact, 37% of retailers with above-average site scores failed to excel in digital marketing, illustrating the scale of the problem. Luxury and activewear brands most commonly fall into this quadrant, including the likes of Kate Spade and Louis Vuitton.
Streamliners
Streamliners have average to below-average deployment of site features but effectively broadcast them on digital marketing channels. These brands therefore have an opportunity for improving their site experiences to further capitalize on marketing messages and drive customer conversion. Diverse sectors are represented in this category, with grocery and beauty falling into it most frequently. Examples include Glossier, Albertsons and Williams Sonoma.
Laggards
Laggards lack site sophistication and also fail to market drive-to-store or fulfillment initiatives. As the second-largest quadrant, a smattering of verticals are represented — most frequently watches & jewelry, fashion and activewear. Laggards need to first improve their sites, then divert funds to marketing revamped capabilities.
To benchmark omnichannel site enablement and digital marketing performance, Gartner tracked 92 retailers and select direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands with multiple brick‐and‐mortar stores. We then plotted them on a two-dimensional grid based on the degree to which they integrate omnichannel website capabilities and market those capabilities or their stores across email, social media and display advertising. About 60% of the 130 data points comprising this year's scores are based on brand site features that involve store locations and information, integrated in-store inventory and fulfillment. Key data points in these categories have been collected in past omnichannel studies, enabling longitudinal analysis.
The remainder of this year's scores incorporate brand efforts to market omnichannel content ‐ either drive‐to‐store or fulfillment ‐ to consumers through email, social media and display advertising between October 2018 and October 2019. Based on their aggregate performance, brands were assigned as Leaders, Streamliners, Undersellers or Laggards.