Brick and Mortar Stores Try to Simulate the Online Shopping Experience

I wanted to share an interesting article discussing how brick and mortar stores are scrambling to provide features that are typically found in online stores:

More Clicks at the Bricks (Business Week December 6, 2007)

Just a few short years ago, we in e-commerce were racking our brains to find creative ways to simulate the store experience. We added avatars of virtual personal shopping assistants, had customer service agents standing by for you to chat with, and developed 3D imagery that simulated the experience of handling a physical object.

But it seems the tables have turned. Online shopping has trained customers to demand services and information immediately at any time of day.

The article says:

“The Internet hasn’t destroyed brick-and-mortar retailing, as many once feared. But has it ever changed consumer behavior. Across the U.S., stores are playing catch-up with shoppers habituated not only to the speed and convenience of purchasing online but also to the control it gives them. The Web provides shopping when you like, where you like, with access to gobs of research—from a product’s attributes to where it’s cheapest. No real-world store can replicate all that.”

It goes on to list several online features that have started trickling into physical stores:

• Providing scanners that customers can take around while they shop to keep track of the running total
• Enabling customers to send a picture of themselves in an outfit to their friends to get real-time opinions in the dressing room through instant messaging
• Allowing customers to buy online and pick up in the stores (in under 24 minutes in the case of Circuit City)
• Installing kiosks that allow customers to search for products in the store
• Allowing customers to search the inventory of other stores in case an item is out of stock in the store they are in
• Letting customers search to see what celebrity wears different types of perfumes
• Taking email addresses from customers at the checkout counter to keep them informed of upcoming sales via email
• Text messaging younger customers about deals

I think the most successful companies will be the ones who find ways to integrate both physical and online environments to become a truly multi-channel store.