It mays seem counter-intuitive but online retailers are trading in their pure-play internet status and leasing bricks and mortar stores in high streets and malls.
While behemoth Amazon, which last year opened a shop in Seattle, is the biggest online retailer to get physical, smaller operators also are investing in bricks and mortar to create a point of difference and give customers a chance to feel their products.
Charlie Egan, director of online sports goods retailer Run Stop Shop, said business rose 25 percent last year after the opening of a showroom at the company’s South Melbourne warehouse.
(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Online)