While ecommerce continues its meteoric rise, the death of physical storefronts has been greatly exaggerated. What’s certain is that familiar brand names will fade while new methods of buying and shopping will emerge.
Vollbracht: Consumers used to go in for one-stop shopping—“destination shopping.” You’d make a trip out of it: spend time wandering around a mall so huge you might get lost in it. It wasn’t supposed to be fast. I spoke with an executive of a major US retailer recently, and he told me that, on average, each click-and-collect order costs them between $20 and $23. They still have a long way to go to really understand how to make that model work.: Consumers are demanding more from retailers these days. This is a new era of functionality engagement. Click-and-collect offers the convenience consumers seek but definitely comes at a cost to the retailer. In the short term, big box stores are adding employees.
As such, consumer retail organizations are going to need to significantly enhance their employees’ technical skills. And that’s no small feat.