The days may be numbered when customers wait in line or crowd into a traditional retail space on Black Friday in order to get the best deal on holiday purchases. Despite optimism, traditional in-store retail may soon be a thing of the past as customers prefer purchasing online, more specifically using mobile devices.
Clearly retail isn’t dead since people are not going to stop making purchases, but the way we’ve all become accustomed to in-store shopping will cease and we can attribute it to technology. While people will still feel the need to see products up close or even try them on for fit, technology is blurring that boundary. With apps that allow you to download an image of yourself and virtually try on jeans or even makeup, customers won’t have to set foot in an actual store. Moreover, on Black Friday, when the experience is less about product discovery, and more about finding deals, mobile simply allows shoppers to get more deals faster.
The most recent Black Friday data shows the decline of in-store purchases and the rise of rise of mobile shopping.
According to Adobe:
While mobile shopping saw strong growth with a 34 percent share of sales, the role of tablets continued to decline. Tablets drove 15 percent of sales on Black Friday, a 2 percent decrease YoY. Smartphones generated a record 22 percent share of sales, 70 percent more than in 2014. iPhones and iPads continued to drive the majority of mobile sales with 67 and 84 percent respectively.
These figures clearly indicate where shopping is going in the future. Despite attempts from big box stores to get online, it seems that most notably Amazon has beaten them, and done so handily, owning over a third of all Black Friday sales. And what makes Amazon more appealing is that they don’t also have a brick and mortar store to support. This gives them an advantage to offer more competitive pricing and the convenience of delivery for customers who don’t have the time or inclination to step foot into an actual store.
If traditional retail wants to compete it will need to come up with a better strategy, because people are not going to stop making purchase anytime soon, but they will find a place that offers them better pricing and service.
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