“Clicks and bricks” may soon be the best way for retail businesses to operate, one company owner has claimed.
“Clicks and bricks” may soon be the best way for retail businesses to operate, one company owner has claimed.
Chief executive of health product chain Holland & Barrett, Peter Aldis, told scotsman.com that the future for retailers lies in a world where physical stores sit alongside their online offering in order to capture all types of customers.
As his business is still in the process of growing, Aldis explained that he would continue to invest in opening new stores, although he was also spending a great deal of money elsewhere on boosting the online offering.
This approach, which he dubbed “clicks and bricks”, is one that has been proving increasingly popular with brands across Britain, as they begin to realise that any costs incurred in opening an online marketplace – such as bringing in online payment processing features – pale in comparison to that of running a physical store.
There is still a market for those who prefer to do their shopping in person, however, which is why Aldis said he’s still looking to open physical properties, even if he is negotiating lower leases that run on a short-term basis. Such trends, he said, would enable retailers to reassess their position after a short while, then decide on the figures generated whether to continue to revert to a wholly-digital enterprise.
“If we don’t do this now we would be the next casualty,” he told kamcity.com. “For a company that has bricks and mortar it’s absolutely crucial to embrace multi-channel. You can’t let ‘pure play’ online people just take your business.”
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