On today’s Business Beat, Jeff Sloan explores whether e-commerce will be the death of brick-and-mortar retail.
Tune in to the Business Beat, below, to learn why Jeff believes there’s going to be a symbiotic relationship between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail bringing success to both:
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Good morning, Paul! As we’ve reported on the Business Beat, and as is well-known at this point, business is going online at a pace never seen before, in fact, so much so that many have predicted that this exit is from brick and mortar to online is the beginning of the end for brick-and-mortar retail as we know it. Now in 2021, U.S. consumers will spend around $933 billion on e-commerce and that’s an 18% increase over last year’s total spend while brick and mortar grew at a pace of around 6.3% in 2021. So the big question is, are we seeing the end of brick and mortar? To help us understand this conundrum, new information just released by Design Rush, a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies, provides greater insight into the future of brick-and-mortar retail in relation to e-commerce. Dennis Lewis, owner of Mad Ecoris media believes that the move to online will continue going strong, especially in categories where technologies such as higher quality product photos, videos and the ability to personalize with live chat, for example, now makes purchasing online easier. And as a result, win more confidence by consumers and win more of their spend. However, Tanner Rankin, Amazon consultant at Source Approach, believes that brick and mortar is not dead at all. He believes instead that online tools such as Google Shopping, if used properly, can drive customers to in-store at local brick-and-mortar locations, where does our products are indeed available? And in his view, we will continue to largely experience more of a hybrid model where brick and mortar and online work more closely together. My bottom line, Paul? I, too, feel that while there is more shakeout to come for brick and mortar retail, if store owners focus on experience, supreme customer service in which the customer is clearly made king, and with a clear online integration strategy, I, too, believe that what we’re going to see is more of a complimentary nature between brick and mortar and e-commerce in which one actually helps drive success of the other. I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.
