The best of click and brick

Ecommerce has opened up an altogether new vista for doing business. What was inconceivable till the advent of this medium –that of reaching out to a global market without leaving one’s desk –is now entirely possible. Given this, many businesses have sprung up to have only an online existence. Where is the need for setting up expensive infrastructure and inventory and face difficult problems, when one can sit at home and trade?

Fully online? Not yet!

Having said this, it has to be mentioned that for all the wonderful benefits it brings, ecommerce is still emerging. Although the market is huge and is set to grow by leaps and bounds, we cannot foresee a situation in which it will replace physical shopping at any time in the future. Why is this so? The simple reason is that people like to enjoy the experience of actual shopping. Many online shoppers miss the satisfaction they derive out of physical shopping, whether it relates to the prospect of selecting the right store to take the family to, the touch and feel that they experience of the product, or the way they feel important when attended to.

A proper mix of the two

This is where a business has to make a judicious mix of brick and mortar and click. The ideal offering from retail businesses would be in striking the right combination of the two. It is true that many products are best sold physically. And there are those products that are suited for being sold online. There are also a few products that can be sold both physically and online. The business can make a list of these and offer them in the channel or combination of channels that is best suited.It gets a hang of this classification over time, as it gets more and more familiar with its business.

The ideal combination

An ecommerce business has the kind of growth opportunities a brick and mortar store can only envy. The most outstanding feature is the ability to reach out to a global market without leaving the comfort of one’s location. At the same time, a physical store has the emotional appeal an ecommerce website can never provide, no matter how advanced and personal it might get. Rather than view these disparate natures as challenges, a business can take advantage and get the best out of these by marrying the two. A business seems that is neither fully brick and mortar nor all click seems like the ideal combination. In other words, businesses could think of the “click and mortar” scenario.