The Future of Brick and Mortar

Since the advent of the Internet, brick and mortar stores have largely fallen prey to the competition of virtual stores. In many sectors, it's just easier and more efficient for consumers to shop online. Amazon.com beat Barnes and Noble to the punch in selling books online. Circuit City, unable to compete with Best Buy, was bought out in 2009 and now only serves as a consumer electronics website. Zappos, an online shoe retailer, is becoming a greater and greater threat to brick and mortar stores suchess Payless Shoes and Shoe Carnival. The list goes on.

The question is, 'will we reach the point of extremity at which no physical, real-world retail stores will exist?' It's quite possible. Some consumers even buy their food and household items online. However, while I do think that the Internet is going to take a large share of business away from physical retailers, I don't think they are going to become obsolete. Many consumers don't want to buy a product that they cannot interact with. You want to be able to pick up the fruit and see if it's bruised. You want to be able to hold the Kindle in your hand so you can move it around and see how the light bounces off of it. You want to actually try on your shoes. The Internet is great. It is more efficient in purchasing a product but not very effective in providing a purchasing experience.

So, maybe the Internet will weed out some brick and mortar stores, but those are only the stores in which consumers collectively do not have enough desire for interaction with the products prior to purchase. And it's not just interaction with the product itself that brick and mortar stores have to their advantage--it's interaction with the environment as a whole. The colors, the slogans, the employees, the sounds, the smells (you can't smell through the Internet...yet). So, if your favorite store just closed down and you're upset about having to find your product of interest online, relax. There will most likely always be a shopping mall of some sort. It's just too valuable of a human experience for consumers to give up just for the sake of laziness.