This is an odd one. Massive retailer Woolworths is going to set up a cybershopping scheme in its stores for Christmas - you go in, the toy Tracy Island or Dalek or whatever you're after is out of stock, so you can go online on the premises and have it delivered either to the shop or to your home.
Half of me says this completely misses the point of electronic shopping - you do it to avoid the crowds, surely? People who shop from home are at least partly doing it to get away from the bustle of the massive shopping centre, particularly at Christmas. Turning up on the premises almost certainly puts you outside the traditional e-shopping market - but am I missing a trick? There's an eBay shop with actual premises in Purley, I've noticed as I've driven past. Maybe there's going to be some sort of resurrection of traditional shopping combined with the electronic variety.
The odd thing is that it's the larger companies that have thought of this. A smaller retailer could put a terminal into their premises at relatively low cost. Say you owned a bookshop and someone wanted a copy of something you didn't have: wouldn't it be impressive if you could say to them 'OK, I can't supply it but if you give me the cash I'll order it from Amazon and it'll be with you tomorrow'. No, you wouldn't profit from that sale, but I'll bet the customer would be back another time. Of course you'd need to make it clear that you had no formal association with whichever online bookstore you used, or else there could be legal issues - but what a boost for customer loyalty that would be.
It will be interesting to see whether the Wolworths experience pays off. If it doesn't, then I have my answer as to why only the big companies are trying the mixed online/offline approach - because they have the pockets to take these risks. If it does, then this could turn a lot of preconceptions about the market and the way it behaves beyond recognition.
Personally I'll still be avoiding shopping in the Christmas crowds as if I had an allergy to it...
