The Internet Will Soon Make Store Based Retailing Obsolete

The Internet will soon make store based retailing obsolete

Using books and grocery shopping as examples, critically discuss this statement with reference to shopping process and people's motives for shopping and assess the potential of internet shopping and the threat that it poses to store retailers.

How many times have you used Internet during the past month? Can't come up with the answer straight away, the number is too big right? What about the past week? Same answer probably. Needless to say for good or bad Internet is playing major role in our everyday routine namely checking our emails, look through the latest news, communicate with other people or even do ours weekly shopping. Nowadays we depend on it more than ever to get the job done. I even won't be able to write this essay if it was not for the Internet. In my opinion the most important feature of it is the speed. A famous equation states "Time is money". People value time more than anything these days and we all know that it is in the nature of most people to be greedy. This is why Internet has grown to be a part of our daily routine - it saves us precious and expensive time. Its convenience cannot be compared and matched. We rely on it for solving majority of problems that we have to cope with in our trivial round. However one might ask the question: Can I really do everything by the Internet and even if I could is it going to bring the same result and most importantly same satisfaction? In other words is Internet mature enough to take care of our needs?

Firstly I may state that I believe the topic statement could be interpreted as true and false as different aspects have to be taken into consideration. I attempted to segment the topic question into three key points. I identified that the duel between the old fashioned store-based retailing and Internet commerce is expanding to a greater extent throughout this decade and there are several layers that needed to be addressed. The first one is the shopping process in terms of convenience, satisfaction that brings to shopper and established habitual procedures by the consumer. Second one is expecting further analysis on the motives when consumers go on a spree. Lastly I have researched on the potential of the Internet as a substitute of store-based retailing and what are the exact threats that it poses. Further on explaining what are the main advantages and possible drawbacks of both retail means. I tried covering perspectives of both retailers and consumers. Of course this suggests two points of view this is why I aimed to show the possible effects on both sides. Finally in order to assess the issue properly the most important factor that must be taken into consideration is actually the nature of the goods the retailer is offering and willingness of the consumer to alter established habits of traditional store-based shopping. I have used books and groceries shopping as examples to illustrate the above statements. Moving further on I have linked them to the three aspects of the topic question in order to show how vital is the nature of the product that is being retailed and how strongly it is connected with the choice of retail route.

There are two different retail formats to be evaluated - traditional in-store shopping and online shopping. The convenience each of them offers to the consumer would be the main issue in the analysis. According to Beauchamp and Ponder (2010) two are the main factors that a consumer considers when deciding whether to go shopping in the local grocery store or make it online - these are time and effort. When shopping traditionally one considers the location of the store, the availability of parking spots and the store itself. Online shopping on the other hand requires some time to be spent for choosing the website, navigating through the site and after that waiting for the purchase to be delivered. Extending my analysis further on I had to examine closely the convenience of the above mentioned shopping processes thus aid comparison between them. Beauchamp and Ponder (2010) identified four main aspects of retail convenience: access, search, transaction, possession. All these dimensions share one and the same goal: saving consumers time and effort and identifying the convenience of the shopping process. Each of them plays a major role in the decision-making process of the consumer. Beauchamp and Ponder referencing Seiders et al gave accurate description of each aspect:

* Access convenience- "the speed and ease with which consumers can reach a retailer"

* Search convenience - "the speed and ease with which consumers identify and select products they wish to buy"

* Transaction convenience - "the speed and ease with which consumers can effect or amend the transaction "

* Possession convenience - "the speed and ease with which consumers can obtain desired products".

Imagine you want to eat crisp tonight when you watch the game with couple of friends, or you want something sweet now but your order is not coming in the next day or so.

Another important moment that needs attention is the fact that retailers should add value to the retail experience. Put in other words, retailers have to differentiate themselves from the rest of the competition. Clearly there is Internet usage boom in every sphere of businesses. Furthermore even sceptics that criticise the excessive usage of Internet are highly dependent on it and take benefit from it every day. It is the inevitable future it cannot be argued about it. Businesspeople are like vultures stalking their prey, they fight amongst each other in order to get the best starting position as everybody knows that being first gives you the tastiest and the biggest part of the share. Businesses are adjusting to the new trends trying the get ahead of each other's ideas and occupy the most advantageous position in order make even larger profits. There are UK and US web sites, for example - (www.mysupermarket.co.uk ; www.become.com ) which purpose is to make comparison of prices and bargains offered by Internet retailers. Consumers can even combine products from different stores during one shopping spree and as a result to construct the best deal for them.

It is obvious that Internet retailing has become more appealing for the selling industry as there is higher demand by the consumer. Most of the giants that were first to enter the Internet grocery retailing such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, ASDA/ Wal-Mart, Ocado have established quite strong positions in this market already. This means they must have overcome the initial ambiguity and insecurity of being first