Department stores continue to lose ground. They accounted for 10% of retail spending in the 1980s, 5% in 2000 and around 2.5% currently, according to consulting firm Customer Growth Partners.

I do most of my shopping online for a number of different reasons.  The selection you can find online is typically much better than you’d ever find in a particular store (or even a mall), not to mention that you can comparison shop once you’ve figured out what you want to buy.

I typically dislike going to showroom style retail stores, namely because of the poor customer service (i.e. Best Buy).

The only downside to purchasing online is not being able to try on clothing/etc, but using sizing charts provided on product pages can work wonders.  In the event that something does not fit, I simply return the item for a size that does fit – I always check for a return policy that does not charge a re-stocking fee.

Now that purchasing items online is commonplace for most people, it’s going to be difficult for department stores to get customers to come back to their stores, unless they really begin to *INNOVATE*.

Source: Smart Money

Comments are closed.