How can brick-and-mortar stores compete against online stores?

As the world evolves and changes, there is very little that brick-and-mortar stores can do to compete against online stores. Online stores are able to reduce costs significantly by not having a store that needs to be paid for, with expensive overheads and staff wages. This puts the standard store at a great disadvantage. Couple that with the size and customer base of online stores, and they are able to achieve great economies of scale by mass-producing products cheaply and shipping them directly to customers. International shipping is also growing at a tremendous rate, while also becoming faster and cheaper, which also expands the potential sellers to a region from a local area to a global one. This is the future. What can someone do to stay ahead or keep up with that kind of growth?

The only way to remain competitive in any market is to adapt, and the new and ever-growing online market is no different. Amazon is a global giant. It seems that nothing can be done to challenge the presence it has. However, there is room for competitors, and I see it more and more every day. Online stores, at the moment, can’t provide their customers with a hands-on experience, with products that require you to touch, feel, and try before you buy, and they will always have a place in shops. Therefore, shops selling items that require the customer to be present are relatively safe. Restaurants, shoe stores, clothing shops, and high-end retailers are always going to exist, but as retailers and customers are able to customize and order customized products, the need will reduce, especially for true and tested brands that people trust. For example, Nike is already doing great work with customization. The customer never needs to set foot in their stores. They take the customers measurements, and the customers can customize their own piece of clothing to make a perfectly unique product. Small-business owners will need to do the same, and I think we are seeing that trend more and more. People are becoming specialists at certain things, being able to create and build products, customize them at a rate and with an expertise that large companies just can not compete with. There are websites, like Etsy, which allow people with skills and crafts to sell their goods online, without a shop front. This is a positive thing, as they can also capitalize on the online shopping market, and customers can get customized unique products at affordable and competitive prices.

There are some companies that are bound to flounder in this new economic environment. I think electronic stores are going to go fairly soon. Places like Yamada Denki and BIC Camera in Japan will not be able to compete with online stores if they don’t adapt to this new environment. They need to provide a service that can’t be found online, which, as information is so readily available, the information you get from an electronics store salesman will become less and less valuable.

Adapt, learn to customize, and create a unique product that people need. These are some of the only things that companies can do to avoid being outmatched by cookie-cutter stores that sell the same exact product to the masses. If you can do that, you will have a product worthy of buying and if you can master the art of doing that and selling online, you will have a winning formula for success in my opinion.

Nick

Vocabulary

overheads (noun) – regular costs that you have when you are running a business or an organization, such as rent, electricity, wages, etc.
couple with (phrasal verb) – to be linked to another thing, situation, etc.
tremendous (adjective) – great; very large in amount
ever-growing (adjective) – continuously growing without stopping
flounder (verb) – to have a lot of problems and to be in danger of failing completely
outmatch (verb) – to be or become better than something similar