Brick and Mortar and eCommerce May be the Perfect Pairing

David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
| Raven Guru Marketing http://www.ravenguru.com/

Brick and Mortar and eCommerce May be the Perfect Pairing

eCommerce

Nearly twenty years have passed since the demise of brick and mortar retail was forecasted. Those in the know — and I was one of them — understood that the Internet was going to change everything. Moreover, while some things have gone the way of the dodo bird (like travel agents), how the world wants to shop has actually changed very little. According to eMarketer, global retail sales for 2014 were $22.492 trillion. ECommerce accounted for a mere 5.9% of that total, and the four-year forecast only estimates that share to grow to 8.8%. So, it appears that people still like to go out and touch stuff.

However, the way we shop has changed a lot, and the Internet is responsible for much of the change. Most product research is conducted using the Internet, and recommendations for products are collected and communicated there, as well. Informational websites and social media are now a major part of the buying process. Few businesses can successfully exist without an online presence, as approximately 63% of the US population made an online purchase in 2014, representing 6.5% of US retail sales. Yet, the country with the largest amount of online sales is not the US. It is China.  

At $426 billion, online sales in China today is $120 billion larger than in the US. China is forecasted to represent 40% of online sales in 2018, exceeding $1 trillion. The US will fall to a distant second, with $493 billion in digital sales. However, the percentage of buyers will be greatest in the UK, with 73% making at least one online purchase, versus only 27% of Chinese buyers making such purchases. Clearly, digital buyers in China buy online more often than any other nation.

The Internet as a source of commercial and social activity will continue to grow and flourish. Yet, it is quite apparent that brick and mortar stores will be around for a while. In fact, while this may be short lived, Best Buy — once considered dying, if not close to dead — has actually seen an increase in sales. They appear to have successfully promoted price matching for in-store comparison shoppers and improved the online buying experience. They saw unexpected increases in both areas of the business; in-store and digital purchases have grown 2.2% and 22% respectively.

The global economy is complex and slowly recovering from the last recession. How a business attracts attention and acquires customers must leverage many touch points, digital and physical. The multi-channel strategy best achieves business objectives.



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