A Great Shopping Experience!
The small retailer has always had more than their fair share of competition from the early days of catalog shopping to the growth of mega shopping centers to one stop huge box stores. The huge expansion of Walmart in the small and midsize markets throughout the country put many a small retailer out of business. The mega malls exploded across the country.
The small retailer now faces a far bigger and menacing challenge.
The recent pandemic has trained millions of shoppers to choose on-line shopping when it comes time to make a purchase. Amazon has grown at a rate that boggles one’s mind and it’s only going to get bigger. Target, Walmart and a host of other national retailers are focusing their efforts on expanding their on-line presence. The suppliers are skipping the retailer totally and selling directly to the consumer.
While this all sounds very ominous for the brick and mortar retailer, the truth is that the independent small retailer has always been innovative when faced with challenges to survive. They have done it in the past and will do it in the future. No, they can’t do “business as usual,” and no, not all will survive. Those that do survive will have to adapt and offer the customer a great shopping experience. Why it matters now: 90% of customers say that they’ll return to a store if they have a positive in-store experience.
60.3% of them have stopped shopping with a store permanently because of a single bad in-store experience.
There’s truly no room for error. The small independent retailer must deliver amazing in-store experiences and do so consistently. How they do this is left up to the genius of each local store owner.