Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzg
There's been lots of analyzing on this now, and many studies have found a direct correlation between brick-and-mortar success and online operations. Simply put - stores that have a great, robust online shop are doing significantly better in the flesh than chains that don't have a good online store, or one at all.
It creates good brand trust and recognition, and give people flexibility. Lots of people may want to go try some things on, then buy them online. Or, need to do an exchange of something they bought online. When e-commerce first started booming, people thought the shop-instore/buy-online folks would be the death, but that's just not happening. People actually spend more money on average online than in stores.
It means bricks-and-mortar can have less staff on shift, and expand their online staff. Running an online retail operation is a staggeringly immense job. Takes a ton of people. Because shoppers have more access, they need many more customer service people on, where before it was just the people who happened to physically come to the store.
I've said it before, buy I think HBC's online operation, and how early the company jumped on board, is the single reason why they're booming right now, and why they avoided the current fate of many other major department stores. Their online shopping experience is near perfect.
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Agreed. One of the best companies to follow that model is Memory Express - still beats out some giants like Newegg and Amazon because of the flexibility, robust online operations and well maintained locations in most major cities.
I had no idea HBC was doing well at all let alone online. I may have to consider ordering online there (or at least shopping and buying if its a good deal / item). There online store looks good but wasn't sure if ordering process was smooth / modern. Even some newer more modern companies have kind of sketchy and or out of date checkout processes and shipping options.
(American Apparels was horrible, which looking at their gradual collapse makes sense. H&M's checkout is woefully out of date and unclear. American Eagle's took way too long)*
I go to the downtown location a lot and while it does seem fairly well maintained (most of the time the items are where I expect them to be) it does look kind of worn down - I wonder how much of it is to do with the ancient interior though.
*Ordered stuff these sites over 6 months ago so these may have changed for the better.