Online shopping has some hard effects on old-fashioned brick and mortar stores. In fact, many of those brick and mortar stores have gone under since the online revolution began about 10 years ago. Consumers shop online because they have quick access to their computers and laptops. They can avoid waiting in lines, spending gas money and going through the motions with salespersons. The following are five ways that online shopping has affected today’s brick and mortar stores:
Prices Change Drastically for the Better or Worse
One drastic way that online shopping has affected brick and mortar stores is their prices. Customers who still visit the physical brick and mortar stores are now finding that their prices are either astronomically higher than online prices or much lower than they are. The first situation is usually the situation that occurs. These stores raise the prices of their items to compensate for all the lost sales that go to online shopping esp with price comparison websites like shopsmart. They are playing catch up, but catch up backfires sometimes.
Dropping the prices down too low to make a profit tends to backfire, as well. The logic behind it is that customers will swarm to the facility to take advantage of the sales, and those sales will multiply and create a profit. Multiplying an unprofitable sale 1,000 times leaves nothing but 1,000 unprofitable sales, however. There must be a happy medium to the pricing strategies.
Sales Personnel Have Become Extremely Aggressive
Another way that online sales have affected brick and mortar stores is that their workers tend to approach customers aggressively. Salespersons, managers and other personnel often try to push items on the customers that do not desire just to meet quotas. The online sales world hit these stores hard, so they are just trying to make up for it. However, such aggressiveness tends to send customers away—back to the online shopping—so they can shop in peace.
Hours Are Limited to Compensate for Lost Revenue
Online sales have even affected brick and mortar stores in terms of hours. Many of these stores cut their hours down so that they could save money. A store that used to be open until 8 p.m. may now close at 6 p.m., for example. The hour cuts saves hundreds of dollars per week in payroll expenses. Unfortunately, cutting the operational hours often ends up shooting the business in the foot because they lose sales that would have occurred when customers got off of work.
Inventory Decreased to the Bare Minimum
Many brick and mortar stores do not have the inventory that they need to succeed because of their struggling profits. That ends up hurting the business. Some customers still love to come into brick and mortar shops because of their need for instant gratification. Some consumers like to be around people so they visit such shops. They will leave and go to online shopping if they cannot find what they need, however.
Stores Started Opening Online Stores
The good thing that online shopping has brought to brick and mortar stores is another way to profit. Those stores sometimes start online stores so that they can earn additional monies every day and night.
Consumers can find a wide range of products online by visiting a comparison site. The comparison site will show the various prices and details of the products that the consumers want to purchase. Comparison sites show products from online stores and brick and mortar stores. They show the interested shopper all the details so that person can make the choice that is best for him or her.
