Word: malling
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...problems were centered high in the retail pipeline. The worst offenders, according to the Andersen study, were giant chains trying to jump on the online bandwagon (but perhaps leaving their hearts in the mall). Even when the big bricks-and-mortar stores managed to get the online orders right, there was a 75% chance that the goods wouldn't arrive on time. Toys "R" Us, realizing three days before Christmas that it could not make good on its delivery promises, issued free $100 gift certificates to customers left in the lurch...
This is not to say that first-time Web shoppers hated the experience more than they hate trudging through the mall. The e-stores must have been doing something right; early indicators point to a $12 billion cyber Christmas, way beyond the most optimistic preseason estimates. And since nobody had a clue as to how many folks would actually buy online this year, it's not surprising that a quarter of the orders got trampled in the ensuing stampede...
Given that kind of willing audience, e-tailing start-ups emerged in virtually every "space." There are at least nine sites for pets, 17 for toys, six selling luxury goods and about two dozen peddling computers. Jewelry. Beef. Sex toys. Anything you can buy in the mall--and quite a few things you can't--is available online, shipped to your door within days, if not hours...
...this may persuade you that old-fashioned commerce is as dead as disco. Unless, of course, you've been to a mall lately, where the parking lot is packed and you can spend a vacation day in line to pay for a shirt. Malls still offer plenty of advantages. You can touch, compare and try on the merchandise--important for items like shoes. And, of course, you can buy it today. We still love instant gratification...
...that an interstate full of delivery trucks will spell the death of your mall. "People will go shopping in stores as a social activity," predicts high-tech guru Esther Dyson, but "there may be a lot of showrooms and fewer places where you actually take things home." Should you buy off-line, automatic in-store bar-code scanning may make checkout lines a thing of the past...