Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Now that people can do price checks across the Internet in a fairly quick and easy manner, it makes you wonder what all this will lead to for brick and mortar retailers.

At this time it's not too much of an issue, because online marketers haven't been able to get the simple customer satifaction area taken care of. That's held back the online retail industry some, even though it's growing fairly strongly, although it's been flattening out some over the last year.

Assuming online retailers take these challenges seriously and rise to the challenge, it's at that point the impact of online retail will truly be felt.

Even now a number of sites are growing fast on the Internet, sites that help consumers find where the discounts are on the specific product they're interested in. Some of them are Frucall.com, Freecycle.org, and Keycode.com, among a number of others.

Eventually this could lead to pressures on retailers concerning their margins. When anybody can quickly check a price to see if it's the best there is, that changes the game some. Add that possibility to the ubiquitous mobile phone, which can be used to instantly check prices, and you have the potential for disruption in the industry.

At this time I don't think the Internet is ready to go prime-time. Not only are there the customer satisfaction issues, which few companies are doing very good at, but there's a different challenge at various price points across the spectrum.

For example, discounters will always be discounters, and they are already competing based on price. It's hard to know if the Internet will do much to change that reality, even with the ability to check prices instantly.

Another example is luxury goods. While most of us know fantastic, high quality photos or video must be included with the high end products online if it's going to make an impact on the consumer, the type of buyer of luxury goods are usually very busy people who put a premium on their time. The question there will be if they consider the time spent looking for discounts worth it.

Some people that put a large price tag on their time probably wouldn't consider the benefits of some discounts worth the effort. On the other hand, some of the ways people in this demographic get to where they're at is because they're frugal.

The reality seems to be that it will take some time before the Internet makes a huge impact on brick and mortar retailers. At this time most consumers use the Internet to search and find out about products, and then go to the physical store to purchase them.

With the disappointing service offered online, it's going to take years before the industry reaches the point where it may disrupt the brick and mortar stores. Of course many of the brick and mortar stores are part of that online world as well.

For consumers looking for bargains, the Internet will definitely make a difference, and some of that will even be larger in times of economic uncertainty like we live in today. That's the reason discount seeking websites are growing so strongly now.

Concerning the immediate future, the online retail space will continue to grow, but it will also slow down in growth until businesses learn to get back to the basics of a offering satisfying customer experience; something not being done well at all at this time.