Page 265 - DMGT550_RETAIL_MANAGEMENT

Retail Management

Notes Consumers

As e-shopping becomes the most sensible alternative to procuring needed goods and services,
consumers will abandon their traditional views of shopping. No longer will a routine trip to a
supermarket or mass retailer, such as Wal-Mart, satisfy the e-consumers expectations. The effort
of the trip will require an experience that one may find in the most expensive stores of Beverly
Hills. For example, the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania contains a Bose® outlet, which also
houses a Starbucks coffee shop. The “sipping” room is enhanced with music supplied through
Bose audio products and innovations, such as speakers as small as a Rubik’s Cube, but with the
sound of a much larger unit.

Brick and Mortar Retail

This new shopping experience segues into the changes required by suppliers. As stated above,
retailers and manufactures will have to rethink their physical selling strategies. Existing retail
shops will not survive if they fail to adapt the changes in consumer needs and behaviors. Stores
may become a place to showcase new products and services that will be purchased later
electronically. However the opposite pattern may initially be an even more important vehicle
for retailers. Shoppers will use the Internet to quickly gather product information, including
price, to save time in comparison shopping and unsuccessful outings due to lack of stock. Once
a product and location decision has been made, the consumer will load up the kids into the SUV
and venture in the brick-and-mortar world of shopping.

e-Marketing

In time, however, the dominance of electronic purchasing is inevitable. Suppliers should bet
their lives on it, especially if the product is not particularly differentiated or unique. Marketers
must rethink their strategies and target audience. Mass marketing will not have the same appeal
to the individual consumer. Marketers must utilize the massive databases that will be built
through consumer “clicks” on the Internet, to personalize company advertising efforts. Developers
of their company’s e-shopping technology must also do extensive research on how consumers
use the Internet and how they search for products. Where traditional media has a generally
passive audience, the Internet is more proactive in its use. It will take more effort for companies
to place their product where the consumer will encounter it. Instead of a mass bombing the,
which occurs in television advertisements, Internet marketing must be like a smart-missile that
can anticipate and intercept the consumer’s product searches.
Suppliers

Manufactures and retailers must also evaluate their relationships. “Manufactures have spent the
past twenty years dominated by their retail customers.” The chain of products to consumers has
been drastically altered already. Manufactures are no longer separate from their consumers.
They have new opportunity to establish a direct link with the end-consumer companies, such as
Dell Computers, have proven that direct selling to the consumer is more efficient and satisfying
to the customer. The only advantage of a retail electronic shopping site is the collection and
convenience of many products in one location or site. Manufacturers can still fight back by
forming joint web-ventures. The retail store may eventually be the biggest casualty of the new
technology. It may one day be painfully ironic to a company like Wal-Mart, who utilized EDI
and other electronic means of buy, selling, and communicating to become the most efficient and
successful retailer, that the same technology will make them obsolete as an organization. Wal-

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