The disruption predicted that people would prefer to sit at home and shop rather than go to shops is changing the face of retail. I'm not sure shops will disappear, but we certainly don't need so many of them.
The "big box" shifters seemed to have died out. No longer having a warehouse as a shop and make 10% on the boxes is seen as a viable business model with Toys-R-Us and Maplin going to the wall. Macy's too in the US have decided to stop being a department store.
But this is all B2C .... how are things in B2B land?
Most of us, take our B2C working practice and apply it to how we work in B2B? We will continue to use the internet to research products and services, based on what we find, we will draw up short lists and then engage with those suppliers. We will avoid salespeople at all costs.
In other words B2B will go the same way as B2C.
Are you teetering on the brink?
It is not just about shoppers preferring to buy online – although 20% of fashion sales, where the pressures are perhaps worst, have now moved to the internet. There’s been a seismic shift in the way we spend our time and money. Social media, leisure, travel, eating out, eating in – using takeaways and delivery services – and technology are all taking time and cash that would once have gone straight to shops.
