Brick and Mortar Shopping Versus Omnichannel E-Commerce

Brick and Mortar Shopping Versus Omnichannel E-Commerce

January 23, 2020

Is brick and mortar shopping sufficient to keep retailers afloat? The advent of smartphones makes other shopping avenues ever more lucrative, but how do omnichannel and online marketing fare against traditional outlets?

First, what is omnichannel shopping? It means that shoppers can use whatever channel of shopping is available to them. This is highly convenient for the shopper and is gaining major popularity in the modern shopping era. In fact, a recent study based on 46,000 shoppers showed that 73% of them use multiple channels to do their shopping. The two primary shopping channels are:

Bricks and mortar shops – Shoppers can commute to their well-known and advertised local shops or shopping malls in the city. This type of shopping has been very popular for decades.

e-Commerce shopping – Millions of websites on the Internet offer goods and services available to be purchased from anywhere, anytime.[irp]

The difference between these two types of channels is bricks and mortar shopping provides shoppers with a “look and feel” experience. With e-Commerce shopping, you can have the look by browsing products or services online but the tactile experience is lacking.

Over the years, it seems that more and more people have been shifting from bricks and mortar shopping to e-Commerce shopping, but the B&M shops still generate revenue that is several times greater than that of online sales. However, the revenues alone don’t tell the whole story.

One study of 46,000 shoppers showed that 73% of them used multiple channels to do their shopping. That is quite a high percentage of people who opt to “look around” before deciding to purchase.

Some sellers have found it challenging to change the way they offer their goods and services and to provide adequate e-Commerce solutions to their prospective clients. 30% of sellers stated that budget restraints were holding them back from providing alternative shopping options for their clients.

Other obstacles for sellers to provide an omnichannel experience includes things like a lack of internal organization within the company, poor data quality of their products and services, a lack of customer analytics across the channels, and the inability to identify customers across shopping trips.

Though 73% of sellers say omnichannel shopping is important to them, the factors above definitely appears to be tough to overcome. The sooner sellers take on board the changes required, the better it will be to not only maintain their business and also to increase their business.

Statistics show businesses implementing omnichannel shopping helps outperform competitors by 300%. If you have a brick and mortar business without any e-commerce channel, now is the time to start making changes so you are not left behind.