A Relook at Retail - Can Your Store Compete With The Internet - Even From Within?

Just as the economy is starting to recover many retailers are buying more merchandise, filling up their warehouses, and watching the consumers come through the doors once again spending and buying. It's all good right? Well, yes and no we have some more innovative disruptions on the home front, and the brick-and-mortar companies are going to take another huge hit. Let me explain.

Have you considered that everyone is running around with a smart phone, or an iPad? Ask yourself as a retailer what they are surfing for while they're inside your store? Well, you might be surprised that they are checking on your prices and they are surfing online to find similar products for a lower cost. Worse, some of the companies that sell online do not charge sales tax so they already have your brick-and-mortar store beat by anywhere from 5 to 10% depending on where your store is located, often this more than covers the shipping costs.

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Also, consider if you will that their cost structure is a lot less because, as they do not have to have a storefront. Can you see how difficult this is getting? The question is; what can you as a retail store do about it? Can you make your store into a Faraday cage where no way can get a Wi-Fi signal, or 4G wireless frequency get in from outside the store? That will probably backfire and piss off your customers. The only way you're going to compete is to lower your cost, increase the volume, and offer special discounts yourself to your loyalist customers caring your membership cards.

But still, how can you compete against Walmart [dot] com or Amazon [dot] com if you are a smaller store with less purchasing power? Chances are you can't. Maybe what you need is to have an online store within your store. In other words, offer free Wi-Fi for those people who are in your store, and let them go through your servers. Watch where they go, and let them browse your own online store for items that may not be in your store but items you can have delivered to them via a third-party delivery system.

There are many ways to tackle this problem, but if you don't have a strategy you can't win. And meanwhile your competition is all over this. In fact Sam's Club is now telling its customers that if they can find a lower price, even while shopping in the store, show that price to the front register, and they will match the price. In other words, Sam's Club is using this to their advantage, and they are telling the customer they are confident that they have the lowest price, so confident they will match any price, and so confident they challenge you to find it cheaper elsewhere.

That's where the competition is going, question is; can you compete in the future of retail. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it. If you have any comments, concerns, and/or questions please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at your earliest possible convenience.

A Relook at Retail - Can Your Store Compete With The Internet - Even From Within?

BARNES AND NOBLE APPLETON WI