{"id":371,"date":"2006-04-19T11:36:08","date_gmt":"2006-04-19T16:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/?p=371"},"modified":"2020-01-05T14:22:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T19:22:41","slug":"time-to-merge-online-with-bricks-mortar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/time-to-merge-online-with-bricks-mortar\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to merge online with bricks & mortar"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dutch bricks & mortar bookseller has implemented Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology<\/a> in two of its stores to help it manage inventory — and to help customers shop for books.<\/p>\n

I find both applications interesting, but it’s the latter that truly rocks, and here’s why: once you’ve used Amazon’s search capabilities, hunting for a book in a traditional shop seems awfully cumbersome.<\/p>\n

So to my way of thinking, any retailer that’s maintaining bricks & mortar outlets should be looking at ways to implement the customer-friendly aspects of online shopping in its physical locations. Being able to search for a product on an in-store kiosk is a prime example. Combine that with the capability to pinpoint exactly where that product is in the store and you’ve mimicked one of the major conveniences of an online store.<\/p>\n

I mean, how many times have you stood in line at a customer service desk in a bookstore, you finally get a clerk to help you, the clerk looks up a title on a computer, leads you to the shelf, and then you stand there while the clerk spends another five minutes hunting for the book?<\/p>\n

That’s pretty much the brick & mortar book-shopping experience.<\/p>\n

Whereas with Amazon, you run a search on a title, click on “add to shopping cart” and you’re done. Don’t even have to enter your credit card info if you’ve set up an account.<\/p>\n

The disadvantages of online shopping are that you can’t actually touch an item before you buy, and you usually have to pay shipping. Brick & mortars win hands down on those two counts. Bricks & mortars also have human beings to give you face time should the technology fail you, which is a huge plus when you need it.<\/p>\n

So why not build on those strengths, but at the same time become more like an online store?<\/p>\n

Another example: why shouldn’t I be able to shop at Gap.com from within a conventional Gap store?<\/p>\n

No reason, except that Gap execs haven’t considered the possibility — or grasped what it would mean to its customers . . .<\/p>\n

(RFID story found via Publisher’s Lunch<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dutch bricks & mortar bookseller has implemented Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in two of its stores to help it manage inventory — and to help customers shop for books. I find both applications interesting, but it’s the latter … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,243],"tags":[963,384,275,967,965,966,961,962,964],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-publishing","tag-boekhandels-groep-nederland","tag-books","tag-bookstores","tag-bricks-and-mortar","tag-online-shipping","tag-retailing","tag-rfid-tags","tag-rfid-tags-for-books","tag-selexyz"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5394,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/5394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirstenmortensen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}