Humanness: The Greatest Asset of The Brick and Mortar Stores in the Retail Industry

People in Retail Industry

A physical storage vs. the Cloud, paperback vs. e-book, manual vs. automatic – the battle between digital and traditional continues and has now reached even the low-profile walls of the retail industry.

The 21st-century retail, as always, runs on the art of persuading people to purchase products. However, in recent years, there’s been a gradual transition from the traditional brick and mortar stores to the modern e-tailing business. This has left many consumers, old and new, wondering whether to stick to the tried and tested path or jump on the bandwagon of the latest trends.

The rivalry between the two is growing in the recent years. The capacity of the physical stores to survive against the digital competition was questioned. This issue has risen because of the fast retail shifting; together with the positive sales growth forecasts in business studies for online stores.

On the other hand, there were a lot of researches which showed that most of the consumers still choose to go to supermarkets and other physical store outlets. These results might have given the traditional owners some good news, but still, it cannot change the fact that online stores have been perceived to be reigning in the retail industry because of its accessibility anytime, anywhere. Furthermore, people choose to buy in front of their monitors due to the convenience it offers – saving time and ease of shopping (less crowd, no long lines at the cashier’s deck), plus the impulse buying prevention, which the traditional stores cannot deliver.

Statista, an online statistic, market research and business intelligence portal stated in one of their reports, that there are an estimated 1.66 billion online consumers worldwide in the year 2017 alone, and these numbers have nowhere to go, but up. With billions of busy people opting to patronize online stores due to time constraints, who would not wonder how would the bricks go against the clicks?

Greatest Competitive Advantage of brick and mortar stores – Humanness

In this technological age, the traditional retail stores manage to exist and compete with the e-tailing through the “human feel” that it provides to its customers. This claim is supported by the scientific fact that people are more satisfied and encouraged to buy when they tend to touch and feel the product – helps them to make the purchasing decision. In addition, a survey conducted by Timetrade resulted in a positive 85% response – stating that consumers still prefer purchasing through physical stores over electronic retailing platforms. It further states that more customers prefer to buy at the stores itself with the state of humanness; that is when a storekeeper personally assists them to make a purchase. This serves as the advantage of the brick and mortar retailers against the e-tailers’.

Retail Industry

How can the traditional stores keep up?

There is no way to escape the fact – that sooner or later, the stores that do not have the capability to invest in different retail platforms will evaporate. The only option they have is to innovate, which means, they need to spend rational and financial resources to both physical and online stores. Thus, every brick and mortar retailer must start practicing the power of integration – the combined use of digital platforms and traditional retail methods. This integration will surely take time since the business owners have to learn how to capitalize on both retail channels. While the journey towards this integration is on the process, the ultimate asset of these businesses remains to be their people – people who have the social and intellectual skills, and people who know how to value customer experience.

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The struggle is real in finding good candidates who can assist you with your promise to fulfilling customers satisfaction, while you’re doing the job on preparing to adopt the omnichannel strategy. Hence, manpower providers, like us, exist to help you solve that challenge.

Our years of experience built our expertise to provide businesses with the right workforce to deliver humanness to your customers. Let Rensol support your business!

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

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