Never knowingly undersold?

John Lewis, love them or hate them, are actually doing something right.

Our biggest challenge as ecommerce evangelists is to ensure that retailers with on and off-line properties are properly integrated and sharing customers. After all, an increase in overall revenue is a good thing, whether it's coming from the spanking new website, or the fantastic in store customer service.

So what's the problem? Well the reality is that revenue targets are still designated at the store level, with the website counting as a store. So you have all these high street bricks and mortar shops encouraging customers to buy, and come back and spend more from their individual store, and on the other hand you've got your virtual eshop that's available to everyone and open all hours. Store managers are therefore always feeling that they're competing with the online store and no one is willing to share the love. Surely the sum of the parts is greater than the individual?

In an ideal world, you'll have a single view of the customer; they can shop online, in store or over the phone from a catalogue. Each touch point is tracked and every product can be delivered to the home, or can be collected at the nearest store. Not happy with your product? Well you can send it back through the post, or you can take it to your nearest store for a refund. How about this scenario: you visit your local fashion joint and you've found the perfect pair of shoes - they just don't have it in your size. Well it's simple. In our new multi-channel ideal world, they'll just order it for you from their website and you'll receive it the next day. Nice.

But this isn't happening. The high street is fighting with the eshop which is fighting with the catalogue for the same sale. Some customers actually use all three channels, but that customer is not regarded as the same by the business - it's three customers with three distinct shopping habits. It's getting better but there are challenges. Many. We are sadly still a very long way off that blissful, integrated multi-channel future that we all deserve.

So what's John Lewis done to deserve a mention? Well they've taken a very simple approach to this issue. The website is regarded as an invisible entity that is shared by all. If a purchase is made through the website, that sale is allocated to the nearest John Lewis store and hits their bottom line. Why is this good? Quite simply, it means that the staff in store are now actively encouraging customers to buy stuff from the website, as opposed to insisting they buy from their store. And if it's not in stock in that store, they're logging in to the website and purchasing the item for them. Fantastic! Short cut to multi-channel nirvana. Get rid of the website's P&L and use the stores to actively push web sales. Love it.