Brick And Mortar Business Analysis

Brick & Mortar is here to stay

For the last few years, online-only retailers have flourished beyond belief. Brick-and-Mortar has taken a beating indeed, but the tides might have just started to turn. Brick-and-Mortar has been down but certainly not out. It's not that customers suddenly are bored of shopping online or from their mobiles. It's just that a huge plethora of technology empowered opportunities is staring down the face of offline retail. Brick-and-Mortar is not dead, and for good reasons.

A few significant things to consider include:

The Amazon Story: According to a Feb-2016 Wall Street Journal Report, Amazon planned to open a total of 400 bookstores. While many would look at it as a potential challenge for existing book stores,

It's quite expected that Other e-commerce players will follow suit.

Global Omnichannel Retail Index:

Global Retailers are adopting an omnichannel way of marketing owing to the increasing lack of brand loyalty and lack of customer consistency on one particular channel. Brands with both an online and offline presence are doing well and that will be the case for quite some time now. The illustration below provides details about the global leaders on the omnichannel retail index. Marked on a scale of 100, USA, UK and Australia hold the top 3 spots with scores of 50, 49 and 48 respectively.

Here is why Brick-and-Mortar will never fade away:

Mobile Apps enhancing in-store shopping

Brick-and-Mortar in recent times have been giving them a taste of their own medicine by resorting to mobile apps. According to a study by Deloitte Digital, 84% of store visitors use their devices either before or during their trip to the shopping store. 22% of people spend more as a result of a digital presence from the retailer's perspective. These statistics should more than encourage Brick-and-Mortar retailers to have a digital presence via mobile apps. Retailers like Sephora and Target have set an example for others to follow.

The renowned cosmetic chain store, Sephora has taken customer convenience to a different level. People visiting its' app can virtually try on lipsticks that helps save time in the store, can browse for items and directly saved to a 'beauty bag' for later trial inside the store, can also book appointments in the store.

Discount Retailer Giant Target Corporation, focuses on multiple points of customer engagement with the help of multiple mobile apps. The most popular Target Apps include the regular Target App, Target Registry, Kids' Wishlist. Apart from these, an app called Cartwheel allows customers to find deals at the local store and add them to a personalized barcode. This will help customers in easily finding the item when they are in the store.

Store Fulfillment & Personal