In the competition for getting on the e-commerce's train, it is no easy feat for every traditional brick and mortar stores to have a winning formula to replicate the success such as Amazon and Netflix. Notwithstanding the difficulty of hardware installation or setting up the websites, online businesses still have quite a number of challenges. First of all, not all type of businesses are suitable for online e-commerce. Groceries and liquor stores may find it difficult to have online website and have groceries delivered to the customers without the scale and IT specialty.
However, the biggest problem is to replicate brick value propositions in the online world. Conversion rate, which is defined as purchases divided by store visits, are the essence of sales success. For instance, Walmart’s online conversion is still a mere 8%, which means that over 90% of the online visitors visit their website without making any purchases. Traditional retailers need to understand the user experience and the dynamics of online user interactions and reflect that understanding in the design of their e-commerce services. To many consumers and for many transactions, online store has a particular advantage in pricing and convenience, as they can shop at whatever hour they want and comparing websites with several different websites. On the other hand, customer service which involves real person answering, can be hard to be provided online 24/7. And some customers might prefer to hold the products in their hands before buying them. Therefore, retailers must be able to integrate their offline and online channels so that they can satisfy their customers.
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