Word: retailing
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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...
...shipping procedures, the wrapping system--had to be invented on the fly, including the ingenious idea of streamlining the warehouse process by having pickers, packers, loaders, replenishers and order processors all wear different-colored hats. Lenk discovered the hard way that e-businesses couldn't simply duplicate existing retail operations, such as catalog companies, online. "You can't take the mail-order model and plug and play here. For example, we need real-time inventory control. We need the website integrated with the back end, so a customer knows if we have an item...
...that Schwab has proved that the clicks-and-mortar strategy works, this Christmas season we are seeing that Schwab may be the precursor rather than the exception. Robert Kenzer, CEO of Kenzer Corp., a retail executive-search firm, says retailers will have to do online, off-line and catalog in order to survive "or have strategic alliances that permit them to do all three." Companies such as Circuit City and eToys' competitors KB Toys and Toys "R" Us are proving they're not out of the game. "Clicks-and-mortar has a lot of inherent advantages," says Seema Williams...
Initially, companies with powerful off-line brands had a difficult time overcoming the notion that they would be cannibalizing their core business if they sold through the Web. But as it became clear that e-commerce was a viable and complementary retail channel--albeit one that requires a new skill set--the big off-line players gradually came around to embracing...
...really don't want to walk away from your PC, the Web will still be there. Watch for more gee-whiz applications to draw you into retail websites, like the virtual dressing rooms at eddiebauer.com and boo.com or furniture.com's floor-planning program...