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The Drum Live: Rakuten’s Play.com's marketing director says there will be a “tangible resolve” between the struggling high street and online commerce

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

July 3, 2013 | 3 min read

Rakuten’s Play.com isn’t about cannibalising the high street but instead wants to work with it, according to its marketing director, Adam Stewart.

Speaking at The Drum Live, Stewart pinpointed the major challenges facing traditional retailers.

“Our view from the marketplace situation is that there is still is going to be a form of humanity and that with the consumers interact with humanity there is going to a tangible resolve in being able to look and feel products and be able to interact with humans on a face to face basis.

“Our position is not about cannibalisation but about working with the high street to offer an additional proposition that works in collaboration with that tangible high street.”

So which high street retailers are doing it well and navigating this space between the high street and online?

“The Burberry Flagship store is doing a brilliant job. They have their clothing microchipped when you go into the changing room to make it an interactive experience. It’s a space that has taken it to the next level”.

M&S also do it very well, according to Stewart, with store assistants now starting to use iPads on the shop floor to bring together the online and instore shopping experience.

As is Apple, a brand which Stewart has a “love/hate relationship with”. But ultimately the tech company has managed, thanks to the combination of “expertise and the way that they are openly set-up”, to create a high street store where you always “walk out really happy.”

Social Media, will of course, “be huge” moving forward as retail marketers place more focus on the importance of peer to peer and fan reviews.

Stewart says that the key of social media for retailers is activating the fan base and seeing it as an “extended marketing team”.

“At the moment out of our half a million fans, we’ve got 445,000 engaged into our Facebook campaigns and we’ve got 179,000 of those fans sending our messages out into the wider world. And I see those 179,000 as extended marketers," explained Stewart.

And it’s clearly working, as he revealed that Rakuten’s Play.com has seen an 80 per cent increase year on year around direct sales from Facebook itself and said the online retailer took over £3m from direct from Facebook.

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