Showrooming

More recently, the recession impelled many bricks-and-mortar retailers towards a damaging focus on discounting that eroded not only many stores’ price positioning but also any point of differentiation or exclusivity.

The physical store is an “experiential centre” where customers are able to interact with the brand and although e-retail provides choice, convenience and access, face to face customer service still reigns supreme (business insider article) the physical store plays an important role in the retail industry allowing consumers to touch, feel and take a product home fast. By increasing physical presence, and improving systems and processes, companies will be able to enhance the customer experience.

Companies are growing by bringing in new stores to new locations rather than come up with innovation in the terms of bringing the products to the consumer. As written in business insights, the industry is recession proof but personally we believe that the companies’ sales are

This report analyzes the concerns that Best Buy will face, and addresses them from a behavioural and legal perspective. In order to maximize the benefits and limit the risk, our analysis indicates that Best Buy should wind down Future Shop operations and maintain it as an inactive company.

I am sure that some bike shops have already begun doing this and have been experiences benefits from branching out and reacting to the changes within the market. They should also start thinking futuristically and trying to predict possible changes within the market. We see this happening in many different markets. Huge book suppliers are putting local book stores out of business. The same goes for the record stores, it was only a matter of time before it happened to the bike shops. The convenience of receiving a product to service at home is the ultimate

The article describes how brick and mortar stores are faced with problem of show-rooming. This problem is where consumers come into retail stores and try out or on products and then go online and purchase at a lower price (Zimmerman, 2012). Target was trying to get their vendors to give them exclusive products to sell only in their brick and mortar stores. Other options were for the vendor to offer better prices to Target than to its competitors.

* Saturate the market – will it become harder to find attractive locations for new stores and slow company’s growth

Online stores are growing in popularity and drawing attention. Because of this, other retail stores are losing that attention and business. Some major stores include Sears, Radio Shack, JCPenney, Macy’s, Payless ShoeSource, Dillards and more. These are called brick-and-mortar stores. According to www.merriam-webster.com the definition of a brick-and-mortar store is, “a traditional business serving customers in a building as contrasted to an online business” (Brick-and-mortar, n.d.). “It’s possible more than 8,600 brick-and-mortar stores will close their doors in 2017 (…) JCPenney announced plans to shutter 138 stores by July, Payless ShoeSource is closing hundreds of stores, and Macy's said it's shutting down 68 locations” (Wattles, 2017). What a shame to lose these resources and businesses, especially for those who support and appreciate the local retail option.

As a business they need to make sure they are always trading safely and legally not only is this a requirement by law but it also ensures they are up to date with polices and procedure and staff training is always up to date this making the shopping experience for the customer easier and therefore helping sales. There are also many social factors that can affect the retailer in the current environment this can vary from social network sight to social occasions a lot of business the retailer will get is by word of mouth good or bad reviews online or form other people will always affect the retailer sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse it is how M&S responds to the feedback that will ultimately effect the retailer, everyone will have a bad experience with a business but it’s how that is handled that will determine whether the customer will return or not thus effecting the

While Target believes these ideas will help with the show-rooming problem, many feel that brick and mortar stores

Surprisingly, their company has found great success with the reverse showroom method. This is a method that is easily adopted today by numerous stores. In essence, a

‘We aim to return the UK High Street Retail business to its role as Britain's most popular stationer, bookseller and newsagent … Our plans encompass improved efficiency through cost savings and margin enhancement, while rebuilding the competitiveness and depth of our product ranges.' (Ms Swann BBC, July 2005)

Today’s customers are more aware and empowered, and have more bargaining power due to the exponential increase in competition – direct, indirect or substitute. In retailing, they want hassle-free shopping, have less time at their disposal to locate the shop and the merchandise and are reluctant to keep waiting. The modern format retail stores are doing their best to anticipate the customer’s demands and are going all out to redesign their store interiors, offer more choices in varieties and assortments, and are giving as many services as feasible.

Banks remain Relevant. In (Kell 2017) the author discusses how sports clothing company Lululemon is expanding their business not just with brick and mortar stores but also by expanding their e-commerce by 20%. Through the internet companies can reach more people worldwide than they can from their stores. Many companies are feeling a lot of pressure to close store due to the fact that e-tailing is becoming more and more popular. Companies can use websites to track consumers and get a better idea of what they are buying, this would be important for Joseph A. Bank because when they bring in new products they could have a better representation of consumer interest in it. Although it is more convenient to the consumer to shop online it does have a few drawbacks, from a retailer stand point e-tailing is all self-service. A specialty retailer like Joseph A. Banks may lose customers looking for help with selection if the focus too much on e-tail. Also another problem that can arise is the increase of competition with lower prices, due to the reach of the internet Joseph A. Banks will have to compete with stores worldwide to get

Since Argos displays goods primarily through the form of a catalogue, customers make their selection by looking through the offerings, then they check the availability of the item through the advanced computerized inventory system, pay for the item(s) and then either collect the goods themselves or have them delivered by Argos. The Internet has played an important role in the company’s development. In 1995 the Argos website was launched, and has been continuously developing its online services ever since. Today it is the second most visited website in the UK, with 400M visits per year (8). Since December 1999, Argos customers have been able to use the “Click & Collect” service via the website, or similarly, as of 2008, the “Text & Take Home” mobile service allows ordering via smartphone (9). Theses methods of including the customers in the over-all service helps keep staff levels low (see Exhibit 4) as there are no products actually on display in the stores, which therefore do not require time-consuming maintenance, costly displays, restocking, security etc. Not only that, but because all of the stock is held in stockrooms to which only staff have access, the stores themselves don’t require huge floor space, which saves the company from spending exorbitant sums of cash on large expensive retail properties.