Back in the 1980s, my parents ran a chain of denim stores called Jeans Experts. As old-fashioned as it might sound in the age of online shopping, every purchase took place at those physical locations. Mom and Dad advertised on TV, radio and billboards, but their business revolved around the brick-and-mortar store.For so long, we’ve been told that e-commerce is the Holy Grail for retailers and that brick and mortar is dying.
It’s tough to turn a profit in those conditions. For many online brands, the very first sale used to be profitable. Now, with marketing costs skyrocketing, retailers are often underwater after their first sale. That’s left them hoping for longer-term customer relationships so they can profit from the second or third sale.As selling online grows more expensive, doing it IRL is getting cheaper. From 2019 to 2022, retail rents in several major urban coreslast year to more than 4,600.
Hint: Open it where your online customers already are. The beauty of e-commerce is that you likely already have reams of data on where your customers live and what they buy. For digital players, opening a physical location is also an opportunity to reinvent the concept of a store. That means understanding how e-commerce and brick and mortar complement each other., another past client of ours, is one retailer firing on all cylinders in how it approaches that intersection. The gourmet chain’s physical stores serve as shops, pickup points and mini logistics hubs. Its brick-and-mortar outlets fuel digital sales in the same region, creating synergy.