Who’s in Your Wallet?
Many great cities developed for one important reason. They were at crossroads, or at bays, river crossings, or safe harbors. Some were near resources to be harvested or emerging roads, tracks, or caravan routes. They grew because they were or would become markets. Market towns enabled trade, commerce, and exchanges that enabled value creation. Agriculture, mining, cattle, diamonds, forestry … all types of enterprises emerged, so that exchanges could be made, with money or barter as instruments. We could get and sell stuff. For most of human history, markets were visible, tangible, and somewhere we travelled to buy or sell. This tangible requirement and the transportation linkages determined life or death to commerce and the development of cities. Ask the railroad towns that were bypassed by the interstate highway system or mining towns that had no metals or minerals left to harvest. Our conquest of time and space over centuries has shaped this dynamic.
Shopping and commerce “has come a long way, baby!” The yearly post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy continues to amaze, particularly with how the connected world has changed our business landscape. It’s like watching an unfolding chapter in the Star Wars epic, except that the war is over our spending wallets. In this recent episode of the on-going war, the Cyber Alliance has again bested the Mall Empire for our loyalties. In fact, for some time now, the Mall Empire has painfully learned from these battles, and some have defected to or are replicating many of the Cyber Alliance strategies and tactics. This Cyber Alliance had its beginnings several years ago, deep in Amazon web jungles or perhaps a scenic eBay. If this keeps up, there is a good chance that the Mall Empire may have to close more of their forts or garrisons. If the battlefield is “our wallets”, who gets to it faster?
Business by brick and mortar is diminishing, some to extinction, by economics, wasted resources, overheads, and more often a more ubiquitous predator, the online competitor and operator. In fact, many brick and mortar enterprises today succeed only because they have built an online presence. Many slept in on Black Friday morning while others were out at midnight and stayed out until midday or later. The Friday shopper fought bottlenecks, endured queues, and mass insanity for deals. I logged on, chose, paid, and checked out, all sitting with a great cup of coffee.
From a business perspective, the online world is yet to find boundaries. It, like our universe, continues to grow and we continue to discover more about it. Visionaries are in the wonderful position where new business models are there for the making. The risks and rewards are so different, that in many disciplines agile will trump big and flexible will trump fixed. From the customer’s perspective, it is a whole new journey, walking through boundless virtual shopping malls and the new excitement that more choices and transactional convenience brings.
It has always been about convenience and cost, for buyers and sellers alike. How soon can my customers secure the benefits they seek and at what cost? The virtual world provides dual benefits of customer convenience and a more level playing field for the seller and suppliers. Historically, large brick and mortar meant more items, sizes, and choices for the customer. It defined convenience geographically and in floor space design. Goal one was to get the customer in the door and goal two was to keep them inside shopping, not much different than a casino in Las Vegas. Not so anymore.
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday battles are not just about holiday gifting, are they? How about our own enterprises? Are we there on Friday or Monday, 24-7? Whose convenience does our business model favor?
