Bricks Over Clicks? Architecture Drives Customer Experience
With the holiday-shopping season upon us, how and where we shop depends on the day and the experience. Black Friday, with 7.4 billion in sales this year, has notoriously been known for pre-dawn lines at the store’s entrance. (No thank you.) Small Business Saturday encourages us to shop local. And, Cyber Monday is all about the online sales (while you hide your screen at work).
We’ve all seen the news of large brick-and-mortar stores closing due to declining sales. Economists and shoppers wonder if we’ll see more vacancy signs in shop windows. This weekend’s sales showed an increase in mobile-device shopping with 65% of all e-commerce purchases. Similar to past years, visits to retail stores decreased. Plus, a lot of the store visits were simply to pick up purchases made online.
With Amazon and online retailers covering your list from A to Z, why do shoppers choose bricks over clicks? A simple answer…humans want the experience!
The success of the brick-and-mortar store depends on that customer experience. That experience begins with architecture.