New trend of e-commerce development: The line is becoming blurred

Lead: Wired magazine Network Edition today published an article said, in recent days on "Black Friday" and "Network Monday" online retail data abound, the general conclusion is that online shopping, the rapid development of mobile shopping seems to catch up with the traditional shopping trend. But in fact, online retail sales accounted for less than 7% of the total, and most people still shopped through physical stores. And now the line and offline shopping lines are becoming increasingly blurred, with a single line or offline business already unworkable.

The following is a summary of the article content:

"More and more people are shopping online", "more and more people are shopping through smartphones and tablets", and in the past Thanksgiving, black Friday and Web Monday, E-commerce analysts often use these two headings to describe consumer shopping trends this year. It has also become a reason for online retailers to cheer.

Online retail sales in Friday this year were the first to break 1 billion U.S. dollars, up 26% per cent year-on-year, according to research firm comscore. At the same time, more and more consumers are shopping online via mobile devices. ChannelAdvisor CEO Scott Wenge Scot Wingo, an e-commerce software developer, said nearly 1/3 of online shopping on "Black Friday" was done via smartphones or tablets, compared with less than 1/5 last year.

The figures seem to suggest a revolution in retailing, but a federation by the US Retail Federation has poured cold water on the data. The agency said that the "black Friday" that weekend (a total of 4 days) of the United States retail volume of 59 billion U.S. dollars, an average of nearly 15 billion dollars a day. Even though online sales are 1 billion dollars a day, less than 7% of the total daily retail volume. This data is consistent with E-commerce's share of daily retail sales, suggesting that the growth of "black Friday" online retail sales is not indicative of anything, and more consumers are shopping through physical stores.

Of course, a 7% share is not meaningless. 20 years ago, E-commerce did not exist, now can win 7% of the market share, it is not easy. Also, E-commerce does erode the market share of traditional retailers.

Still, most American consumers choose to shop in physical stores, so it is not true that E-commerce will continue to erode the share of the traditional retail sector. E-commerce is really developing, but it may have an upper limit, and perhaps it cannot replicate the experience of shop shopping.

Smart marketers have realised that a single line or offline business is no longer workable, and there is no clear line between the two. In an interview last week, Wal-Mart CEO Chor Anderson said that Wal-Mart's physical stores will get online sales rights starting next year.

This is particularly important for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has long struggled to break the gap between online and offline trading. For example, online buyers can make payments and pick up goods at Wal-Mart's physical stores. In addition, Wal-Mart also uses its 4,000 stores in the United States as warehouses, from there for online buyers shipments. Wal-Mart also said that about 12% of online orders are consumers in Wal-Mart physical stores to apply the order by phone. Based on this, the distinction between online and offline trading has become blurred.

Anderson said: "The first phase of e-commerce development is a purely online operation on line orders, and then delivered home." Now it is difficult to define e-commerce transactions. If you order online, and then pick up the goods in the physical store, this is e-commerce, or physical shopping? ”

"The crux of the matter is not in what forms of shopping, but in this trend," Anderson said. We have channels, but strategically we just need to show up where consumers need us. ”