The online marketplace is becoming a place where consumers are spending more of their dollars. An iGoDigital survey found that revenue and site traffic for internet stores rose 30 percent in the 2011 holiday season compared to 2010.
Online shopping has long been predicted as a threat to physical retail and, now that it is coming to greater and greater prominence, the crisis point is now. A new survey by the Deloitte consulting group holds suggestions on how chains of retail stores can continue to play an important role in sales. They will not become larger in space or resource consumption - they will become leaner, smarter and more efficient.
The survey envisions a store environment connected by Wi-Fi and employees empowered by data from business intelligence software. The authors predict that in the fast store of the future, "product SKU checks, mobile checkout, customer loyalty information and other applications would be right in the palm of the sales associate’s hand."
Knowing what customers want and delivering that information to the employees on the floor is a business technique that Deloitte considers a way forward for retail in the physical space. Business intelligence software properly integrated into a store's infrastructure.
