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August 8, 2018
The Future of Retail is Digital
Horse and buggy? Long gone. Wire rug beaters? Antique store fodder. Pay phones and phone booths? Now just vintage curiosities. And brick-and-mortar retail stores?
To rephrase, if inelegantly, the eloquent Mark Twain, “The rumours of retail’s death have been greatly exaggerated.”
Retail’s not dead, despite the hype to the contrary, but those proprietors sticking to “That’s how we’ve always done things” are likely watching their sales decline year after year. Simply put, our buyers have changed, just as how, what, when and where they buy.
Of course, shopping comes before buying, so that landscape has changed, too. The vast shopping malls of the ’70s,’80s and ’90s, social gathering places as much as shopping venues, have gone the way of Blockbuster. The majority of consumers now shop digitally, and the ease of clicking that tantalizing “Purchase Now” button along with the promise of 24-hour free delivery doesn’t exactly encourage a trip to the store.
How does today’s store-front retailer fight that? The smart ones don’t. They exploit the enormous potential online retail portals present both in virtual sales and in capturing sales for things that must take place in a store, i.e., all those firearms sales.
Whether you’re looking for a way to help your company or clients get off life support, seeking a way to outdo your competition or build out an existing online retail presence and really drive sales, you won’t to miss our 2018 CMO Summit session “The Future of Retail is Digital.” Joined by a panel of firearms industry experts both online and store-front, Mike Vrooman, NSSF’s Managing Director, Member Services will lead an in-depth discussion about how internet sales not only up turns and increase cash flow, but can actually drive customers to retail stores to capture additional sales.
“Too many think creating and marketing an online sales presence requires some huge investment in IT infrastructure and IT, web design and digital marketing experts, plus a new warehouse backed by a new workforce of packaging, shipping and logistical personnel. That might be the case if you wanted to become the next Amazon, but not if you’re a firearms retailer in today’s market,” explained Vrooman. “This session at the Summit should be an eye-opener for everyone in our industry.”
Categories: Industry News
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