Reason to Shop?

End of the Retail Age? What’s your reason to shop?

In this age, yes the internet age (mobile age), whatever period you want to refer to this time as, you’ll note that most people do less in store shopping. Is there a reason to shop?

The question is why go shopping at the store, when online I can find more selection, get more information and lower prices online? Why when I have to spend the time and incur the costs in driving to the store and actually shopping. Malls, seem to be doing fairly well these days, yet online sales were over $172 Billion (that’s right BILLION  WITH A CAPITAL B), and are expected to grow at approximately 7% annually, with sales estimates reaching almost $250 Billion by 2014. The numbers are staggering.

Understandably, retail is still a significant part of the shopping landscape, yet things are changing (that change word again). It doesn’t matter, wholesale, retail, sales are sales. If you hope to continue to be relevant, your company (or your brand) is going to need to build some community, a following of sorts, have affiliate program maybe? At least you are going to need a way for your customers to stand out, or help you stand out from the competition.

Can your customers be organized? Can you give them something to rally around? Why should they take the time, make the effort and shop with you? You need to start considering this, as many companies are building events and forming communities, as an example look at the Running Room. They coordinate a running club, the link drives you to an online training program (exactly how does one have an online training program?) What can you do? The fact is, it’s time for you to start moving in this direction. Maybe look to your digital agency to assist you in this effort? It’s not enough to open your doors and hope customers will arrive to shop, they can find more of everything online. What is going to be your competitive advantage?

Michael Bickerton, Raven5 Ltd, July 2010

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