MARKETING

Bricks (high street) and clicks (e-retail) operations of Carphone Warehouse



Bricks (high street) and clicks (e-retail) operations of Carphone Warehouse

Introduction

We tend to underestimate the role of technology in retailing but technology has changes retail operations and strategy permanently. Years ago retailing was only about getting a prime location for shop and selling to people who visits that shop premises. But things have changed with passage of time (Sloane, 2010, 3). Now, in order to effectively operate, businesses not only have to have a prime location but also need to be present online. Today Retailers are doing business across various service platforms including smart phones, websites, social media, third party vendor relationship, and internet couponing (Carlton, 2001, 6). Online presence provides retailers an opportunity to grow faster. Today there is no ambitious retailer that can afford not to have online presence to cater online consumers (Baines, Page, 2010, 45).

Ecommerce has highly strengthened and evolved the shopping habits of consumers because recent research from Perception Research Services (PRS) showed that consumers are combining the digital and non digital worlds when it comes to product purchasing. These new channels have provided with multiple and new ways for retailers to grow their business. From high street giants like Tesco, Boots, and Marks and Spenser to small retailers, the accepted business model for successful retail venture is Bricks and Clicks (Timacheff, 2001, 88). Without the presence of internet, retail businesses can lose their part of retail market. In this paper we are going to compare the concept of Brick and Click after than we would be discussing model of wheel of retailing of Carphone Warehouse.

Discussion

Comparison between Bricks and Clicks

Business with brick and click model is highly effective store because customer can purchase product or service by visiting the store physically and can also purchase online which saves consumers travelling cost and time. However, there are several disadvantages of Brick and Click business model that varies with each business strategy. There always has been a debate when it comes to decide what way of shopping and retailing is better. Companies having buildings and offices to perform its operations are effectively able to provide customers with better services as compared to click arm. Retailers using brick strategy get better opportunity to make a sale. For instance in case of luxury retailer's customers can be seduced by image and ambiance of the store (McGoldrick, 2002, 7). Persuasive and attentive sales staff can effectively entice customers to make a purchase when there is physical existence of the store. Retailers selling online are not able to provide consumers with the opportunity to browse the content with experiencing any sense of urgency to make purchase. Retailers using brick arm along with several advantages face several disadvantages. Such as store location is not always at convenient place for buyers. Buyers have to travel far to purchase a desired product (Porter, 1996, 61). Brick locations have space restrictions and are limited to amount of ...