subject: Rather Than Killing High Street Firms, Online Couriers Are Helping Them Prosper [print this page] Much is written about the supposed imminent death of high street and physical retail stores due to the advent and continuing phenomenal growth of the internet.
But however much some doom-mongers may point to the added convenience of online shopping as being a key factor in buyers increasingly choosing to use this means of getting their goods over visiting their nearest store, there is substantial evidence which suggests that the stores are actually benefiting from this switch.
The latest company to announce that it is attributing an appreciable growth in sales to increased volume in online trade is the clothing retailer Next.
While it says sales in its retail stores had dropped by 2.3 per cent in the first nine months of 2011, in the last quarter alone, it had seen its home delivery service, which is available both in-store and online, register a sales increase of nearly 17 per cent.
Experts say that, while it had been shown time and again that sales on the high street are affected by the weather, there are no such limitations which hold back online shopping.
There is little wonder, then, that successful high street retailers are scrambling to enhance their online shopping offerings, and make them easier and more convenient to use, with such services as next-day delivery and the use of dependable, well-established couriers at the forefront of such efforts.
In fact, this extra emphasis on giving people the experience of shopping in a store, but from anywhere they want, is a step which is bringing massive opportunities for delivery companies, as they increasingly become inextricably linked with the firms whose online orders they deliver.
As a result, the future looks likely to see large courier service operators aim to forge partnerships with the biggest names in retailing, because they can see the benefits of people linking their name with the quality of service offered by a big retailer.
The hope will be that, when they come to need a courier service for themselves, individuals will remember that they got a good level of service from a particular company when they ordered goods online, and so will trust them to deliver their own parcels and packages.
Building up such 'chains of trust' has served businesses well for many centuries, and is sure to continue to do so long into the future. So people worried about the faceless nature of online shopping may well find that the convenience and excellent service they receive outweighs this worry, and persuades them to make even more use of trustworthy delivery services.
by: Alan Trotter
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