The talk has mainly focused on the pressure felt by the high street in relation to online shopping. How can a brick and mortar store compete with the instant nature of online shopping? How can they hope to compete with 24/7 shopping, home delivery and social media?I know myself that its a great buzz to share a potential great buy with friends over social media - hell, my blog is based on me sharing my great finds with you guys. I also share my potential buys with friends over facebook. It's one of the good parts of social media!
However, I do see where stores are coming from, nothing will replace the thrill of a physical purchase for me. I love feeling the item I've bought in my hands. I love touching the fabric and seeing how the cut of the piece drapes on my figure. This is something that online shopping will never have.
I am a great believer in seeing the item on. I think you cannot accurately judge something until you have seen it off the hanger and on your figure. Every woman is different and you need to see the item on before you can discard it.
Same with quality. Nothing drives me more mental then seeing shoddy black clothing. You know when something is very cheaply made and you can see through the black. This is not always evident online. I live in fear that somone might be able to see through my clothes! (usually because my bra doesn't match my pants!!!)
Online shops do have an advantage when it comes to price though. Retail has been dealt an awful blow with high insurance, retail agreements and staffing costs in recent times. It can't be easy for a shop to compete with someone who has none of these costs. These are all variables taken into consideration when pricing an item. There have been a few times when I have used (I wont mention names) a certain high street store and been cross to discover the item has been on sale for cheaper online. It's not fair to the consumer to do this.
I don't know what to suggest in order for stores to better compete really. Both have advantages over the other and some of the more recent attempts to combine elements of the two have been a little, well, creepy. I refer to a store in Brazil that has installed hangers that tell you how many likes your item has gathered on facebook. So you can check how popular the item you are buying is. (you can read that creepy story here)
There is no easy answer to how best to combat the problem. It could help if rent and insurance costs aren't as high as they are but in a lawsuit friendly country, that isn't going to help - and you can't cut wages while the cost of living here is so high. However you can do things like offer exceptional customer service, improve your instore marketing and visuals and also hire friendly and helpful staff members - oh and the odd free cupcake wouldn't go a miss either!
0 Yorumlar