Question

Brick-and-mortar stores and online businesses have different perspectives regarding competitive advantage.

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

• With their different perspectives in mind, evaluate how and why their strategies differ. What recommendations would you make to brick-and-mortar stores to capitalize on how they can compete more effectively with online businesses? Provide either a personal experience or a cited reference with each post.

Answer 1

Both brick and mortar stores and online businesses have significant advantages over one another. B-N-M stores have the ability to offer customers something significantly important, that online based businesses can not and that is an intimate and physical experience. There is nothing that replace your in-person experience of going into a store and having customer service right at the tip of your tongue. Brick and Mortar stores also have another advantage, they give you the ability of trying on the clothes before purchasing them. I think those to advantages alone, are worth fighting for and completely underestimated. Customers love the convenience and experience, that's what half of shopping is all about. Being that there is also disadvantages to a B-N-M store, such as a large overhead and economical footprint as well as a large inventory.

Then there is also the upsides to online shopping that can not be offered by all B-N-M stores and that is the ability to open a web browser, do a quick search and purchase the items you are in need of without ever leaving the comfort of your home. Now with plenty of online businesses offering free shipping, which gives them more of an competitive edge over B-N-M stores.

There are many B-N-M stores that are competing well with online businesses such as Walmart Vs. Amazon. Although, Amazon dominates the online industry more and more companies have start to create a shift towards online, closing a large majority of flagship stores to lower the overhead and selling more of their products online. The thing that sets a lot of companies like Amazon apart from their competitors is the free shipping and that that is a great strategy to focus. Also, if B-N-M stores an come up with a way to offer clients the ability to try on their clothes without purchasing them first, that would give them a leg up in the online industry.