Case Analysis

Case Analysis

An enclosed mall will never be demolished by the click and mortar industry. The main area of concern is that malls need to integrate the ecommerce feel with the everyday shopping experience. E-commerce only can really supplement the retailing business. Malls were primarily created in suburban areas after WWII to replace the Central business districts. E-commerce has been the booming trend in the last ten years that just continues to expand. The first e-commerce was in 1886, a telegraph operator was able to obtain a shipment of watches that was refused by the local jeweler. Using the telegraph, he sold all the watches to fellow operators and railroad employees. Within a few months, he made enough money to quit his job and start his own store. The man's name was Richard Sears; his company later became Sears, Roebuck.

There have been recent reports of dot.com failures; there is growing recognition that the internet is unlikely to displace any traditional channels anytime soon. This does not signal the end of e-commerce, however. Rather, a number of traditional enterprises have moved to integrate e-commerce into their channel mix, using the internet to supplement their brick and mortar retail channels. The mall needs to get out of the mind-set as a crowded area where people can never locate exactly what they need at that immediate time. Everyone knows that the mall and e-commerce both have great quality and aspects that set themselves apart from each other so it would only make sense to intertwine the two so shopping can become timelier but also an experience.

The reason why the mall is admired is because you can have the physical product in front of you, analyze the fit, and buy the product then and get immediate gratification to take the product with you. The downside however, would be overly crowded areas, you aren’t able to always get your size and it has become more of a chore rather than leisure. E-commerce is the trend because shopping is at your own speed; you can evaluate many sites at once, at any given time and never have to worry about crowds or the breadth and depth of assortments. However, e-commerce also has the disadvantage of having to wait for the product and also you aren’t ever really sure about the product in its entirety which leads to perceived risks.

Malls need to get with the era and provide prompter service. The consumer needs to be able to walk into a store and have the technology of something like myshape.com at their fingertips, where they