In 2012, Jerry Storch, then the CEO of Toys R Us, told attendees at the Shop.org conference that stores will never die thanks to omni-channel retail.
Since that time, many traditional retailers have invested heavily in omni-channel initiatives that seem wise, at least on the surface.
But are retailers’ omni-channel hopes really delusions?
Retail giant Nordstrom competes against other luxury brands like Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue. It sells Citizens of Humanity jeans ($238), leather Prada men’s sneakers ($420), and Jimmy Choo clutches ($620). It does not sell tires.
So, why would it take the rubber discs from a customer insistent on returning them?
With consumers increasingly expecting seamless experiences across channels, brick-and-mortar retailers are recognizing they may have an advantage over online competitors which have, thus far, countered only with delivery lockers and improved shipping capabilities.
Physical stores, of course, may be an advantage, but they don’t guarantee success. To seize the omnichannel advantage, retailers of all shapes and sizes will need to do more to bridge the gap between the online and offline words.
The posh set may still lord their smart handbags, pricey silks, and Ibiza getaways over the masses in the offline world, but in digital it’s a different story.
Online, luxury retailers struggle to keep up with the Kmarts and J.Crews of the world. In fact, according to a recent study by L2, one in five luxury brands still lack ecommerce capability, and 30 percent of them have yet to incorporate basic site search.
Brick-and-mortar retailers may face challenges in competing online, but pure-play online retailers that think they’ve won the ecommerce game shouldn’t count out their old-school competitors.
In fact, in some product categories, brick-and-mortar retailers are starting to beat out pure-play retailers.
As Black Friday is only a few days away, stores on and offline are rushing to be the first choice for consumers. Though the brick and mortar shops are still leading the way, ecommerce is quickly catching up.
IgnitionOne has put together this handy infographic to highlight the shift in shopping by the numbers. The biggest uplift in sales had to be Cyber Monday in 2011 which was actually the heaviest online shopping day of all time, bringing in $1.25 billion in sales.
50% of those dollars spent orginated from people buying at work which would make sense for those who couldn’t get to the deals on Black Friday in store.
Bricks and mortar may not be dead, but another high-profile offline retailer filed for bankruptcy yesterday.
Borders, one of the largest book retailers in the United States,
simply didn’t have enough money to survive in its current form. So it’s
going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will emerge a lot leaner, and perhaps a bit
smarter.
Rumors surfaced this weekend that online retail giant Amazon.com is secretly planning to open its own stores on high street. Citing unnamed property owners, the Sunday Times reported that Amazon “is understood to be scouring the country for high-profile sites“.
The rumored purpose: Amazon wants to give its customers the ability to order online and pick up in-store. Major brick-and-mortar retailers have seen their own ‘click-and-collect‘ services gain steam and it doesn’t take a leap of faith to imagine that Amazon sees its inability to deliver a similar service as a potential threat to its competitiveness.