[LINK] Why people buy books online

[Frank O'Connor]

Mmmm...

About 20 years back when I was theorizing about eCommerce and the advantages online had over bricks 'n mortar, I came to the conclusion that the only rational reason for bricks'n mortar in a pervasive electronic economy was to display the physical goods, and to warehouse them.

I thought that the physical middle man (i.e. conventional retailer) would disappear and big trading houses and manufacturers like Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, GMH, Mitsubishi and the like would carry the cost of providing regional based display centres for their products, whilst storing enough product for 'just in time' purposes and online purchases at more centralised warehouses.

That said, shopping isn't exactly a rational' pursuit (hey, I am an old-time male), and any number of products don't lend themselves to this type of marketing as well as the big ticket items or content (music, books, film etc) do  ... e.g. high end food and groceries, fashion, specialty markets etc etc ... so I was reluctantly forced to conclude that shopping in its present form would be with us for some time yet. (It was also a matter of self preservation, due to the huge number of death threats, as well as pervasive menace pertaining to tender parts of my anatomy, I received from many of my female colleagues.)

At any rate ... I'm now of the opinion that the display centre and warehouse approach will work for some product lines/goods/services but not others.

				Regards,
---
On 07/04/2012, at 9:55 PM, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> Jan and David write,
> 
>>> .. You can see why the book stores went out of business..
>> As industries age, they stack on a lot of fat. Excess weight
>> kills industries, just as it does people.
> 
> 
> True. Many forms of traditional retailing could appear to face issues
> going forward. For example, online retailing may go bricks-and-mortar:
> 
> Paul Kunert, 18 Nov 2011, www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/18/ebat_store
> 
> eBay is launching its first UK store .. The pop-up boutique opens in 
> London's West End for just five days from 1 December.. Dubbed a "Quick 
> Response (QR) code shopping emporium", eBay is luring in prospective 
> buyers with the promise of up to 70 per cent discounts.
> 
> But while consumers can saunter about the store they can only buy online 
> using a smartphone or some other connected mobile device. Each product 
> has its own QR code, said eBay. Shoppers simply scan the QR code with 
> their smartphone ˆ no tills, no queues, no bags, no stress. 
> 
> The online trader expects 5.8 million shoppers to log on during the five
> day fest, with sales forecast to peak at 30 gifts per second (GPS), up 
> from 16 in the same period during 2010.
> 
> --
> Cheers,
> Stephen
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