The retail industry is becoming very cut throat with razor thin margins. It seems we cannot go one week without an announcement that a retailer is either shuttering locations, declaring bankruptcy, or closing all together. But a new trend is starting to emerge leading to the tables being turned with brick and mortar retailers thriving and eTailers dying.
OmniChannel eCommerce which is the merging of online and offline shopping is bringing focus back to physical stores. With 93% of consumers shopping across sales channels before purchasing providing the ability for consumers to shop on their own terms is increasingly likely to lead to a bump in revenue. Well over half of consumers still prefer shopping at physical retail. Just solely relying on either pure-play eCommerce or pure-play brick and mortar is impossible for a retailer to survive.
Consumers are voting with their wallets and feet that they want the best of online and offline shopping. With consumers increasingly becoming more demanding on the companies they shop from it is putting the screws to already razor thin margins for online only retailers who face extremely high customer acquisition costs, have to provide free shipping and returns, and increasing warehouse costs in a discounted culture environment to compete with the likes of Amazon.
To further prove our point watch this video that further describes how pure-play online eCommerce is a losing proposition:
Latest to add to the list includes JackThreads, the online only menswear store which still has not obtained profitability even after it dropped its free shipping and return policy. This is why a growing list of brands are turning towards physical retail to lower customer acquisition costs, shipping, and ease of returns including Warby Parker, Bonobos, BirchBox, Casper, and more. Plus numerous brick and mortar only retailers and now branded manufacturers are breaking down silos to combine their online and offline channels in omnichannel harmony.
If you are in the market for a nice domain name currently held by an online only store, just wait you might be able to get it for a fraction of the cost if more pure-play retailers don’t move towards a click and collect strategy. Are you still using online retailers to sell your products? Read this post as to why online retailers are bad for business and reach out to us to discover how you can own your retail channels.
