Among the revelations that struck me as most surprising while reading the Honeywell Scanning & Mobility white paper, Retail 2D, was that the physical store is still the preferred shopping venue. Given the constant reporting in recent years of encroachment of online shopping into the retail market, it was easy to conclude that the days of the brick and mortar store were numbered. Turns out, that’s not the case. Not even close. What is happening, though, is that the role of the successful physical store is evolving.
As Retail 2D author Enzo Capobianco puts it, “The store is still the #1 channel.” Capobianco’s conclusion is supported by a 14-country survey of 26,000 shoppers conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value, which survey is the topic of a summary, From Transactions to Relationships, written be IBM’s Kali Klena. Klena describe the three primary trends revealed by the survey as:
- “Store dominance shifts to an omni-channel world.” Although the most recent non-grocery purchases of 84 percent of shoppers were made in store, in excess of a third still described themselves as likely to make their next purchase online. Shoppers have options and know it. Given that dynamic, factors such as convenience and assortment, as well as price, are increasingly driving their purchases.
- “Showroomers – A small number of shoppers create a big impact.” “Showroomers,” the six percent of consumers who shop in a store but buy online, have a disproportionate influence on the market, because that six percent makes up almost half of online shoppers. They tend to have disproportionate visibility online and that, in turn, translates to disproportionate influence on the market as a whole.
- “Consumers are hungry for meaningful retail connections points.” It turns out that the vast majority of shoppers actively care about the future of the physical store. Indeed, 89 percent of those surveyed reported that they would be willing to invest 20 minutes (on average) helping a retailer better understand what motivates their shopping decisions.
In Retail 2D, Capobianco introduced the concept of the New Connected Shoppers, consumers who are employing mobile technologies in increasingly sophisticated ways to maximize their shopping experiences. Although brick and mortar still dominates, the most-successful retailers will be those who, as Klena puts it, “build and maintain a seamless omni-channel consumer experience.” Just as the shoppers who visit their stores, retailers must embrace the increasing connectedness of those shoppers, making sure that theirs is among shoppers’ most influential connections.