e-commerce is and will not killing brick-and-mortar - but ...

This article can come across as follow up to an articles I wrote before with the title 'Shaping Future eCommerce' http://ux4dotcom.blogspot.de/2013/09/shaping-future-ecommerce.html.

We are living in an era of big changes - changing from ‘place bound’ to omnipresent, to an era where everything is connected to the internet, where things are becoming wearable and on-hand wherever and whenever one like to use or get in touch.

This means total and radical change of the business environment, even more than what you have seen so far. We have only just started to scratch the surface of what is possible.
There are still so many vendor, a manufacturer or a distributor who are standing at the side – open-mouthed – and considering what is going on attentively and doubtful.
We are living in a new world with new competitors, new innovations, new markets, new technologies, used in ways that might be familiar by science fiction movies.



e-commerce is and will not killing brick-and-mortar - but the changing business models will hurt some retailers, while others will burgeon. And it should be crystal clear for most of the business that it's not a question of either or for most of the business it will be both.


This video shows in a very nice and easy way the effect of omni-commerce


I would like to show you a video by Hybris, what you will see is neither completely new or innovative. It's something we already did almost eight years ago for various companies, but with much more efforts - and I firmly believe that such combination of offline and online will be standard very very soon.



and the second one is also an innovative services - although in this context the opportunities of IPTV are still in the early stages of development / still in its infancy.





And I like to show you an example by SAP – the SAP Shopper Experience app.

The customer has the options …
  • Creating collaborative shopping lists
  • Redeeming unique offers specific to a particular store
  • Managing loyalty accounts
  • Self-scanning merchandise and pay
  • Sharing offers with friends within their social network
  • Planning the shopping tour
  • Collaborating with family members on shopping lists
  • Locating the nearest store
  • Scanning items to research product details
  • Adding items to their mobile shopping cart
  • etc.

And finally the consumer can also instantly transfer their cart to the point of sale (POS) and avoid the check-out line by paying directly from their mobile device.






What is to be done?

Each vendor of products and services has to find and define its own strategy and break this vision down to the touch-points and communication-channels.
On the one hand bricks-and-mortar retailers have to overcome the illusion that's it is just a matter of price why they are loosing customer - Yes one of the biggest challenge is finding a way to overcome the attraction of lower prices the consumer can find online - but they have to find their strengths and find a way to deal with these strengths and the challenges.

The distinction between offline and online is and will continually blurring,traditional retail is and will not going away; it will and have to transform.
Just a few year ago there were a clear border between desktop and mobile - but as this wall broke down it's just a matter of time that we will see this wall between offline and online will be history.

The rule is pretty easy ...
The goal is to give shoppers the best of both worlds
But that's also the tricky part - you have to find your own cross-touchpoint / omni-channel approach


your next step might be ...
  • Identify your current and new customers
  • Define a new Strategy
  • Determine product and service portfolio
  • Redefine Customer Service
  • Establish Secure Payments






Finally I like to show you a few 'idea' where the journey might lead us ...













You might also be interested in these articles...

Shaping Future eCommerce:
http://ux4dotcom.blogspot.de/2013/09/shaping-future-ecommerce.html

Growth in m-commerce today:
http://ux4dotcom.blogspot.de/2013/10/growth-in-m-commerce-today.html


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