Bricks and Clicks

The internet has created a business environment where consumers expect businesses to have their store products available online. Whether these products are for sale or as an informational tool for the consumer, they are essential to providing a complete shopping experience. The benefits provided to the consumer by offering online shopping might also detract from traditional business margins. Online shopping has introduced the ability for consumers to competitively price every single widget, increasing the competitive environment for business. Lets take a look at a few businesses who have had to expand their boundaries to the online marketplace.

Traditionally when you think of local hardware stores, they ten to be convenient brick locations where you can pick up any essentials to complete your weekend project. Ace Hardware is a well known hardware store with a wide assortment of supplies that cover most any weekend project.
So how would an online store be helpful to Ace Hardware? It turns out that providing a large selection of products means that you cannot provide much depth to each category of product. Ace Hardware is using its online marketplace as a tool to offer its customers a wider selection of goods, all of which ship free to the store. Not only does this make the customer feel like they are saving money, but it also encourages a trip to the store which might result in a few impulse purchases. If the customer chooses to ship it directly to their house, Ace still makes the same profit as if the customer had bought it in the store.
Since Ace Hardware stores are owned by individuals (my Grandfather owned one), they encourage consumers to check the stores for availability before purchasing online. This helps to ensure the stores still receive foot traffic which is where Ace Hardware makes most of their money. Consumers are also more driven to go to the brick location knowing they won't have to pay shipping fees. In either scenario, online shopping is beneficial to Ace hardware Brick locations as it drives more customers in to pick up custom orders and increases awareness of their product depth available.

Costco is well known for their huge warehouse locations that offer floor to ceiling deals in bulk. What some people may not know is that they also have a website with just as many deals.


Being a corporate owned store, Costco is focused on large volumes of sales to generate max revenue. This means that their online marketplace is just as important as their brick locations. Everything in their store, including food items, can be purchased online with shipping built into the price. Costco has also fused these two locations, not only allowing returns of online purchases to warehouse locations, but you can even upload pictures online and have them printed at your local store. There is not much conflict between these two mediums because most shoppers still prefer to patronize the warehouse location to do their weekly shopping and the online location for specialty shopping for items not found in the store on a regular basis. This integration of the online marketplace has allowed Costco to expand their sales potential while retaining brick location sales numbers.

DSW is what can be described as the Costco of Shoes. Row after row of designer shoes at bargain prices. Most consumers like to be able to put on a pair of shoes not only to see if they fit, but if they look and feel good. This hasn't stopped DSW from offering a large lineup of shoes on their online marketplace.



To overcome this problem of shoe selection and fit, DSW gives premium members free overnight shipping and exchanges in their stores to promote online shopping. While this might seem as a method that will cut deeply into profits, it actually opens their market to people who might have no intention to go to their physical store and inspire an impulse purchase. This is very evident with my fiance who routinely surfs their online store while watching TV. Would she have done this if there was no marketplace? Most likely not. The online marketplace is no hinderance to the DSW brick locations. It still offers the needs of most consumers to physically try on shoes while the online location panders to the obsessive woman culture of shoe shopping.

Online shopping, as in these examples, has proven to be a great benefit to most retailers. As long as they retain competitive prices and benefits to the consumer, brand loyalty will carry over to the online marketplace. This is enhanced if the brick locations honor returns from online purchases that might not be possible by online specific shopping. All of this must be considered when entering into the vastly competitive realm of the online marketplace.