High end retail is in the
news again, as major retailers such as Best Buy are struggling a bit. In an article in Newsweek a few months ago
some interesting information was revealed.
1.
Apple stores
sales per square foot are $6,000 compared to Best Buy’s $830. That is quite
a contrast. Apple sales per square foot
are double Tiffany & Co. the next best performing store as measured by sales/sq. ft.
2.
Showrooming,is a term for shoppers who go to stores like Best Buy to
look at the real merchandise, then go on-line to complete the transaction – I would
presume at the best price they could.
That is old news, what was new news to me is that 46% of people surveyed
on this said they had done it. I don't think I have done that. I have
Red Laser APP on my I Phone so I can scan the bar code on any product in a
store and quickly read where else it is for sale and at what prices. The APP is not as good as I would like, since
it doesn’t have a way to keep up with all the stores and their current prices, but
it is a start to a new system that should worry any retailer.
3.
Customers hate standing in line for
checkout at the big box stores. So
Wal-Mart is trying a radical idea. That
is to let the shoppers scan their own items as they take them off the shelf,
using their smart phones. And somehow
the payment will be made quickly with that information at something replacing
the conventional check out line. The first question in everyone’s mind would be
“What about the rampant shoplifting?”
Wal-Mart says this system could eliminate hundreds of millions of
dollars in wages for checkout persons and that is expected to offset the theft.
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