The rate at which an online sale is outgrowing the Offline or otherwise known as brick-and-mortar marketing is terrorizing that people are wondering if the future of sales resides online. Although there are reasons to believe that there won’t be such opportunities, because, there are no signs of death for the retail shops. They are still the ultimate in sales, though everything is getting digitalized with online shopping rising and forcing mortar-and-brick shops to struggle to meet up. Offline stores are keeping up with the reduction in sales.

Online shopping uses the internet to receive daily tasks, deals, and even shopping. If this is the case, what is the future of the retail shops? If you compare the growth rate of online businesses to that of offline, you may become afraid of what the future holds for the shops. You will find out that the number of people shopping offline is still great. Many customers prefer entering into physical shops and getting items to purchasing what they see physically. Online shopping poses challenges of getting the wrong goods, poor packaging, incomplete items, and shipping damages. Another disadvantage of online shopping is that many find it hard to visit websites because of the scam. Therefore, buying offline is still the king. Most stores get their customers attention by letting their customers select music, being friendly to their pets, providing novelty fun like watching photo booths or entertaining them with singing, dancing, joking, and comedies. They even get bulky goods from the manufacturers and offer them cheap.

The Amazon is even trying to create an avenue for physical customers by establishing different offline bookshops as well as Whole Foods in different regions of the world to show that they believe in offline techniques too. Amazon believes that a combination of the two strategies will be the sure way to success in the future. The shopping FM shows you that the offline stuff is striving badly to outshine the online stuff. The Shopping FM created an infographic which gives information to both online and offline shopping. Every customer has the right to decide on which shop to choose from, whether offline or online. All advancement shows that the future of sales lies in the combination of offline and online marketing strategies.

Brick-and-mortar allows their customers the chance to experience new changes which you can hardly get from online shops. They create opportunities for their customers to perceive the scent of what they want to purchase, feel the sounds, as well as interact with them in a face to face manner. This type of chance is not seen in online shopping, and it is what many customers require, attention and the feel that someone cares about their welfare. These and some other reasons are why it is estimated that in the future, most of the sales will still be from the offline retail shops.

Rising rate of online shopping

There is no disputing of the fact that online shopping is fast rising. When we talk online, we are not referring to digital clicks to buy goods and services only. We are referring to retail in the future and the areas which should be put into consideration. Such areas include the fact that there will be an improvement in VR, and technology techniques get real replication, most of the things which the retail shops use to have the edge over the online shops will become digitalized, and then the retail offline will lose its numerous advantages over the online shopping. For instance, if you can visualize the way things are and how they will look on the body in case of a piece of clothing will inspire online customers. Also, the ability to communicate virtually with people and to walk around through the search engine in a digital shop will strike many customers off the physical shops. The advent of artificial intelligence is another thing that will create a significant impact on the future of the physical shops.

Furthermore, as we get more connected to the digital world, the ability to use data rises, offline purchases may go down while online will become the order of the day. People are into the news, targeted ads and others and there is an assumption that they will improve significantly. This may lure us towards the online shopping method for a quicker mode of predicting our needs, thereby chipping away the advantages the brick-and-mortar has over the online technology.

Fast delivery is another leverage which online shopping has over offline shopping. In the years past, online delivery used to last for weeks or months before getting to the customer requiring it. However, now, it lasts for a maximum of two days, while Amazon is even reducing theirs to some seconds. The short span of delivery and the convenience of getting what you need is making buyers so happy that the chances are that online may outshine the offline as soon as possible. For some of us, they might say it does not matter, but have you stopped to think of those who are living in remote areas where the shops around them have nothing to offer? Don’t you think they will be overjoyed to get what they want from afar off in no distance time at all? Walmart has created small business close to large outlets in small towns which engages in fast delivery without cost to provide the same benefits

What is the future of sales?

The question remains, offline, online or the both of them which one has the dominating factors in the future of sales? Should we go offline, online or combination of the two? Alternatively, should we ignore them and search for another technique which will boost the future of sales?

The future of sales is dependent on you and what you want to buy. For example, items such as phone, new furniture, ingredients for a particular recipe or a special clothing item, how will you want to get them? In the second case, you may want to get toothpaste, toilet paper, rice or spaghetti. How will you want to buy these? Now, you will find out that in your own opinion alone, some things are good for automation while some purchases can go physically. This is how they both are developing. They are interdependent on each other. One cannot strive without the other.

Many items will go online because consumers are getting attached to regular and instant shopping online. They can get what they want immediately and on steady demand. A household can bargain for a regular supply of household items and believe that it will be supplied on time at their convenience.

People will also know their respective reorder quantities level in such a way that they will place orders based on that and will get supply online by subscribing to receive household or groceries on a regular basis, or according to their demand of the items they need. Some items like clothes, reading materials, and phones will undergo online purchases because of the availability of so much information about them. This will also make offline shopping on the downside. It won’t work for all products. There are some items which can only go offline shopping. Companies will not divert entirely to producing only online goods because most customers will not like the idea. However, with the way science and technology are changing the world, a majority of the consumers will tend towards online shopping because it cost saving and more convenient.

The fate of physical shops

The physical shops will be a showroom and a pack of experiences so we won’t lose hope. They have come to stay despite the rumblings and hustling over the future of the online vs. offline shopping battle. Consumers are the king determinants of the winner in the struggle because most of them are still getting their things offline. Offline has no cause for alarm, and even if there is, they do always re-strategize by locating to places where they will serve as a showroom where customers will go for enough entertainment and better experience.

Conclusion

Retailers should tend to transform their shops into showrooms; customer oriented, more information so that customers can get to know what they want and how to get them. If they re-strategize, they will be able to have more information about their customers and their needs. This will help them to provide these items in the shop for their customers. So many retail shops might not want to do this, they might engage in using other strategies to scale through. However, all the same, the ability for any retail shop to adapt to changes or drive changes in future is the only key to the success of such business. So any claim about who will outshine the other is baseless and will depend on the kind of shop involved. Survival dramatically depends on capability and adaptability to future trend in the market world.