Strategies for Success in Retail (Collection)

10The Internet Goes Shopping

“To change and improve are two different things.”

—German proverb

In Chapter 7, “Integrating Online and Offline Retailing,” we discussed with Peter Fader and Wendy Moe the similarities between online and offline shopping behavior. We saw how insights from e-commerce can be applied in brick-and-mortar stores. But the online and offline worlds are converging in a more direct sense through new technologies for interacting with shoppers inside the store. While consumers have gone online to shop, now the Internet is coming into the physical shopping experience. Although we are still in the early stages of this evolution, neither world will ever be the same.

There is a long history of wanting to communicate with shoppers ...