For the last few years, the overall prediction in the consumer goods environment has been that of a “retail apocalypse” of the brick-and-mortar stores and oversized malls.
Many had foreseen shops closing down slowly to improved e-commerce shops with better customer experiences (and prices).
However, knowing that only 11% of all purchases are done online, several e-commerce brands have taken a reverted leap of recreating the real shop experiences. This “click to brick” revolution has been motivated by the fact that the customer experience of a retail channel can simply not be fully replicated online.
Here are a few online stores that have taken the jump to the high street:
- Amazon: Because who doesn’t enjoy the smell of books (and so much more)!
- Glossier: Expanding its audience from beauty blog and converting to a cult beauty brand with two physical stores. But still in line with the branding that made them big: “Instagrammable magic”.
- Alibaba: opened an AI fashion concept store in Shenzhen, allowing customers to try on the clothing of the webshop and the be triggered to purchase more by receving tailor-made
- Google: Google is offering this inventory feed feature to find specific products at local shops in the vicinity of the customer. In this way, the consumer is able to check what item is in stock at a particular store. Playing on the convenience of picking up something nearby rather than ordering it online.
More and more the two channels collide together for an improved customer experience, complementing rather than replacing each other.
More info in an upcoming post
