MICHELLE NIEDZIELA*, DANNY GALLAGHER
*Corresponding author
HCD Research, Flemington, USA

RETAIL IS DEAD. LONG LIVE RETAIL.

In recent years, a lot has been written about the death of retail. Large retailers like Macy’s, Sears and JC Penny have been struggling and closing stores. Many have declared bankruptcy, like most recently Toys R Us.  Some experts have even asserted that the death of retail has spread to the death of Black Friday shopping with the ubiquity of shopping on smartphones (1), enabling shoppers to browse and purchase online anywhere, anytime. But even amidst these stories of the death of retail, 90 cents out of every dollar (2) is still spent in a physical store in the U.S.

A battle over who wins the consumer dollar: in store or online shopping. And we started to wonder, what are consumers’ perceptions of online vs in store shopping? Why might a consumer ultimately choose online retailers? Is it the convenience? What can an in store retailer do to attract more in store consumers?

DIGGING INTO THE CONSUMER MIND

So we set out to uncover exactly what perceptions and biases consumers held against some of the most popular online and in store retailers. To do this, we tapped into consumer psychology to get ...