It's a sad truth that it costs more to run a brick and mortar business than an online one.
But the way I see it, a customer will enter their business and identify products that are of interest. Those people have the technology to compare prices in real-time in that store. If that price was no more expensive, what incentive would a customer have to not buy it there an then from the store?
In the UK I've felt the quality of a customer experience has gotten worse. Staff ignore you when you are actually trying to find a product, but bug you when you're 'just browsing'. More often than not I'm left with the feeling that they just don't want my money by the lack of helpfulness.
Brick and mortar businesses are selling a service, not just a product. That service is a person to help you, products to see in person before buying and stock to buy immediately. But at the end of the day, it will probably come down to price. If they simply can't compete on price, then the outlook doesn't look good.
I feel (in the UK) they have given up and accepted they just need to sell to people who aren't inclined to shop around, or are 'old-fashioned' and will want to go to a shop regardless.
So often I have been in Comet/Currys/PC World etc and seen older people told they need a £40 HDMI cable, or "this is the last one in stock, it's a great price - shall we go to the paperwork" etc.
I think they know their market and don't want waste time on people who know the real prices of items, who are willing to shop around, haggle and so on.
So often I have been in Comet/Currys/PC World etc and seen older people told they need a £40 HDMI cable, or "this is the last one in stock, it's a great price - shall we go to the paperwork" etc.
I find that sort of thing really irritating. It's mis-selling, and as such it is almost always illegal, but it's close enough to plausible that most people who would be in those stores in the first place won't be confident enough to challenge it.
There's also a certain arrogance about some stores these days, and not just the ones staffed by 12-year-olds. I went to buy a new iPad a few days after they launched. Apple somehow seemed to be price-fixing without getting called on it, because everywhere was charging the exact same price for a high-value, prestige product in short supply, which doesn't sound like a competitive market to me. Still, I figured if those were the rules of the game then I might as well go where they seemed most likely to have stock: the Apple store.
Two Apple staff eventually asked if they could help me. I told them exactly which model of new iPad I wanted. One said that he didn't think they had any in stock and wasn't sure when they'd be back in, but he'd go and check. He came back several minutes later, having apparently sent someone else off to check the stock for him in the interim, and proudly declared that he was right: they really didn't have the product I wanted that was advertised all over their window display, and they really didn't have a clue when it would next be available. Then he grinned bizarrely, as if I was supposed to be impressed by his awesome level of customer service or something.
I walked next door to John Lewis, where I easily found a friendly member of staff, who in turn walked about five metres to a terminal and told me within about ten seconds that they did have what I wanted. She then personally went to the store room and returned two minutes later with the correct box, personally checked that she really had found the item I wanted, and put it behind the till reserved for me until I was ready to leave.
Can't tell you how many times I've walked into a store in the US lately and have come out citing to my wife the same old saying that obviously that store 'is not in the business of selling'. No service, ridiculing you, venting their frustrations at you. It's just a horrible experience all around.
But the way I see it, a customer will enter their business and identify products that are of interest. Those people have the technology to compare prices in real-time in that store. If that price was no more expensive, what incentive would a customer have to not buy it there an then from the store?
In the UK I've felt the quality of a customer experience has gotten worse. Staff ignore you when you are actually trying to find a product, but bug you when you're 'just browsing'. More often than not I'm left with the feeling that they just don't want my money by the lack of helpfulness.
Brick and mortar businesses are selling a service, not just a product. That service is a person to help you, products to see in person before buying and stock to buy immediately. But at the end of the day, it will probably come down to price. If they simply can't compete on price, then the outlook doesn't look good.