I don't think that offline, in-store shopping will ever be snuffed out altogether though. People might moan about having to travel, and wait in customer lines, and moan about poor face to face customer service. But people enjoy having the choice of leaving their houses at any given time, and then buying something, rather than having to wait for the items to be shipped.
It is already happening! However, I feel that we might have evened out and many of the retailers that underestimated online shopping have reduced how many stores they have and sadly have reduced their staff or just have gone out of business. Many of the business that are still standing have realized that they had to make changes when it came to their online side of the business.
Yes, but it will be very smooth and gradual with no big leaps away from shop. Even bookmakers still have hundreds of shops despite the fact there is unlimited ways of betting online, sometimes with better odds. I don't see it completely destroying physical shops, especially the upmarket ones, people enjoying shopping in a store for many items, and their demand will always be catered for.
I don't think it will take over much more than it already has. And as you already said, there's no way that online shopping will completely take over. Even though I primarily shop online, I like that I can just go to a physical local shop to grab whatever it is that I need,
In China, online shopping has already threated the offline business in the recent years. Mostly people check rather to check the style and model on the shop then buy them online to save money. In 2016, lots of shopping malls in the big city like Beijing and Shanghai, Guangzhou close the store due to high rent fee, meanwhile Taobao's sales ravenue amount has been reach up to 480 billion US dollars which nearly equal Wal-mart and it is planned to double the sales in 2020.
There are some instances where I find that it is more convenient to buy things in stores. There aren't those annoying shipping costs on top of the costs of the actual product, and you can go home with the product, rather than having to wait for the item to arrive.
If brick and mortars disappeared, it would create a whole new inconvenient world. They know better than that. You wouldn't be able to pick something up on the way home or shop during a trip out of town or try things on etc. It would be suicide to go fully online unless your sales on the street arent taking care of overhead etc. Also suicide, is not having a user friendly, kick butt website these days. You have to be open to everyone. Exclude one crowd and you're out.
As far as I am concerned, online shopping has almost put store shopping out of business. I get everything I can online, including some groceries. Walmart.com is a triple threat to in store shopping. I prefer the online shopping for many reasons. Its saves gas, it saves energy, it saves time, it's super convenient, the places I shop mostly offer free shipping. There is no reason not to do it.
Ironically, Sears had the opportunity to become the next Amazon, but they completely squandered it. Sears started off with the catalog of products that eventually became an American icon. In the 80's, Sears was certainly the largest retailer in the United States. They had their own computer network in 1993, and they could have easily shifted their massive printed catalog to an online website. They didn't. Instead, they completely got rid of the catalog altogether. At the time, Sears had a strong enough reputation to completely dominate the online shopping market. It's hard to believe this today, but back then, Sears was basically the Target of the 1980's-1990's. Their products were a bit more expensive than other competitive stores, but their reputation was high. People would sought out Sears stores because they believed in the quality that Sears provided them. If Sears had gotten their act together and put their catalog online when online retail was still a novelty, they could have crushed Amazon simply due to their brand name. Too little, too late.
@peachyfuzz Sad isn't it when we could all have been employed and gotten bigger social security benefits. Oh well we got both Sears and amazon, so not so bad.
I think the mega online outlets(like Amazon)are dominating the shopping experience these days with the lower prices,many more options and the convenience factor(couch surfing at home). I remember when a lot of these chains were opening new stores everyday,but now they are closing some of their physical stores and concentrating a lot more on the growing internet and mobile retail channels.
I am positive on this. Technology is pushing us to the internet and online activities are growing fast. I can’t imagine that we pay our bills through online payments together with our online banking. Almost everything is online now including applications to government clearances. E-commerce is growing fast and before we know it, the economy will be dependent on online stores. Definitely, online shopping will eclipse the popularity of the stores especially now that online stores are directly competiting with stores on the mall. And the advantage of online stores is that they can give bigger discounts for their overhead is smaller.
I really hope thay day doesn't come as I love going in store to go shopping. For me it's a reason to get out of the house and forget about electronics and get to walk around. I have also heard of soe stores closing in the US but I really never looked up the reasons. As in my location I see more and more businesses getting built as not so many people actually shop online. People like going out to shop and every weekend the stores are actually filled.
When you get your item at your doorstep doing away with the hassle of travel and other issues involved it is not surprising that online shopping will grow in strength. Those Malls should likewise join hands with these online shopping sites and book their profits.
I personally don't think online shopping with be a threat to regular shopping anytime soon. Not many people are too fond of shopping online to begin with, especially if they have to create new accounts. I do however, see online shopping itself growing and becoming more used.
