. Mr. Mohammed says they absolutely should. In the Harvard Business Review article, he shared an experience he had while shopping for a television set last Christmas to illustrate the point.
"I searched around online, and settled on a highly-discounted model from an Internet retailer. Before buying it, I stopped in at Sears to check its selection. A helpful sales associate came by to talk about my choice. I'd focused on brand and pixel clarity as my primary criteria. The associate explained why I should also focus on other attributes such as the refresh rate (important for fast moving images) and LED backlight (which provides brighter display and greater contrast). That brief tutorial made me rethink my purchase — and in retrospect, he saved me from buying a model I'd have regretted."
For years, we've been told that people are willing to pay premium price for great service. But according to Mr. Mohammed, that idea may soon be a thing of the past As it was demonstrated in his television shopping example, perhaps people want the best of both worlds.
"It's time for a new system in which manufacturers help compensate physical retailers for the value they bring to the sales proposition. They can do that by offering brick and mortar retailers lower wholesale prices than their web counterparts. I call this discount the Physical Store Equalizer, or PSE," added Mohammed.
I think Mr. Mohammed's idea is interesting but I think it somehow goes against the grain of a free market system. Retailers that own physical stores will do what they've always done, come up with new and better ways to attract customers. Maybe they'll even come up with innovative ways to get information-seeking customers to commit. And what about online operations, wouldn't that penalize them for not having a physical store? I'm not quite sure, but PSE just seems to over-reach in the quest to equal the playing field.
So what do you think about the Physical Store Equalizer theory?
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2 comments:
Being in the auto business you become accusstomed to people shopping you. Unfortunately the information and advice you give is discounted by many. However the internet will not replace brick and morter. It supplements brick and morter, but when it comes to making decisions brick and morter prevails. The internet competition makes you sharpen the saw and quickly recognize when someone is shopping you. Once that occurs you can quickly disengage or just bring the matter front and center whether they are serious about purchasing from you or not.
I would think that in your industry, people use the net for research more than for purchasing. Granted, I know of a couple people who've bought new cars online--sight unseen. But I have no idea if they talked with an saleman at a dealership before deciding to shop online. Like you, salespeople will have to learn to distinguish between researchers and shoppers.
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