With more and more retailers making their online presence their primary one, I can’t help but think that in years to come, all means of communication will be via technology. Will we even talk to each other any more?
Before we know it, going for a little mooch at your local shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon will be no more - and for me that is quite a scary thought…right girls?
It’s almost like we now can’t live without our phones by our sides every second of the day. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s become a bit of a habit for me – checking every 5 minutes for texts or to see who has liked my latest Instagram post...and quite frankly it’s ridiculous! But I do rely heavily on my phone for shopping and research into purchases – and I’m not the only one.
There’s no getting away from the fact that our love of our phones and tablets, combined with a perceived lack of time due to busy lifestyles, means that online retail presents a huge challenge for the more traditional bricks and mortar - and that challenge is increasing all the time. The article below cites that as consumers, 70% of shoppers research online before they shop in the store and 1 in 4 pull out their mobile phone while in the store to research the products they find.
Retailers are resultingly quite correctly concentrating heavily on their ecommerce strategies as the traditional High Street is now changing rapidly…and will continue to do so. Will we even recognise it in a few years time?
Shopify, a top ecommerce platform with 70,000 retailers, recently released a point-of-sale system that will connect physical and online retail. Meanwhile, Amazon is quietly building a same-day delivery system that could change the way people shop forever. The secret will be to place warehouses in every city, complete with delivery men and women, a very offline way of thinking about online retail. At the same time, Warby Parker’s co-founder Dave Gilboa found that, even though only 10 percent of their sales occur offline, those sales lead to customer retention and online success that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
Read the original article here