zang
Senior Member
I do expect buying online will evolve. I don't know what it will evolve into but, there's a chance it could involved brick and mortar gaining traction once again.
In some ways it has. Many online-first companies (Harry's, Amazon, Endy, etc.) have opened brick and mortar locations with success. They will never have the ubiquity of box store chains, but they really don't want that. They're there to help them sell product, not specifically as the only source for said product. I don't see why big box hasn't taken cues from this. Best Buy would do itself a favour by turning into strictly smaller showrooms, with free local, same-day delivery in certain areas for larger ticket items. They're already losing money to "show rooming", so why not actually take the opportunity to become the showroom AND offer competitive prices by cutting out the cost of the massive leases and staff? No one really needs to see an HDMI cable or replacement printer cartridge in person before they buy them, but big overhead costs have to be worked into every single product in their (current) stores.