Good things in store for retailers
How physical outlets complement virtual ones
2015-05-01
(Press-News.org) Shopping online or in catalogs is great for many reasons: to while away time on a snowy day; to avoid the holiday crush at the local mall; to do ultra-efficient comparison shopping; to enjoy a world of choice at your fingertips. But if you need a pair of shoes for the party tonight? Not so much.
Online and catalog retailers pondering whether to add physical stores to their customers' buying options can look to recent research by marketing professors Koen Pauwels and Scott A. Neslin for valuable insights on the interplay among the various channels.
In "Building with Bricks and Mortars: The Revenue Impact of Opening Physical Stores in a Multichannel Environment," to be published in the June issue of the Journal of Retailing, Pauwels, of Istanbul's Özye?in University, and Neslin, at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, analyzed data from a well-known catalog and online apparel and durables retailer over a period of almost six years, during which time the retailer added three physical stores. The transactions of those known customers who lived within 30 miles of any of the new stores were scrutinized for orders, returns, and exchanges through all the retailer's channels.
The bottom line, according to the authors, is that when brick-and-mortar stores were added, consumers made more frequent purchases overall, for a net revenue increase of 20 percent - even accounting for an increase in merchandise returns and exchanges due to the convenience of having a physical store nearby. Transaction sizes remained the same. And there was a benefit from a customer-management perspective: adding the new channel led to more frequent customer/firm contacts and thus better customer retention.
Additionally, although the introduction of physical stores did not affect Internet purchases, it did decrease catalog sales. The authors speculated that because catalog shopping is more akin to so-called experiential shopping - browsing for the experience rather than shopping with a goal in mind, as consumers often do in stores - it suffered when the stores were built. Still, higher purchase frequency overall meant higher revenue.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-05-01
With major funding from several groups, including NSERC, an SFU doctoral student has made a key discovery regarding Fraser River sockeye's vulnerability to sea lice.
Recently published research indicates that juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon that are highly infected with sea lice are 20 per cent less successful at consuming food than their lightly infected counterparts. Sean Godwin, a Simon Fraser University doctoral biology student is the lead author of a study, co-authored by SFU biologists John Reynolds and Larry Dill (emeritus), and University of Toronto researcher ...
2015-05-01
Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine conducted the first population-based study that characterizes the association and temporal relationship between gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and other cancers. The results, published by Cancer on April 30, indicate that one in 5.8 patients with GIST will develop additional malignancies before and after their diagnosis.
Specifically, patients with GIST are more likely to develop other sarcomas, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, carcinoid tumors, melanoma, colorectal, esophageal, pancreatic, hepatobiliary, non-small cell lung, ...
2015-05-01
ALEXANDRIA, VA, MAY 1, 2015 -- A statistical analysis of data from 20 industrial countries covering the period 1970 to 2012 suggests housing market pricing cycles -- normal, boom and bust phases -- have become longer over the last four decades.
The study also found that longer down phases can have dire consequences on national and international economies. While relatively short-lived housing booms tend to deflate, more prolonged booms are likely to spiral out of control. Similarly, compared to short housing busts, longer housing busts are more likely to turn into chronic ...
2015-05-01
Most new patents are combinations of existing ideas and pretty much always have been, even as the stream of fundamentally new core technologies has slowed, according to a new paper in the Journal of the Roayl Society Interface by Santa Fe Institute researchers Hyejin Youn, Luis Bettencourt, Jose Lobo, and Deborah Strumsky.
Youn and colleagues reached those conclusions sifting through the records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Dating back to 1790, the records feature an elaborate system of technology codes -- a vocabulary of sorts, in which any new invention ...
2015-05-01
NEW YORK, NY (May 1, 2015) -- Bats are masters of flight in the night sky, capable of steep nosedives and sharp turns that put our best aircrafts to shame. Although the role of echolocation in bats' impressive midair maneuvering has been extensively studied, the contribution of touch has been largely overlooked. A study published April 30 in Cell Reports shows, for the first time, that a unique array of sensory receptors in the wing provides feedback to a bat during flight. The findings also suggest that neurons in the bat brain respond to incoming airflow and touch signals, ...
2015-05-01
In proof-of-concept experiments, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine demonstrate the ability to tune medically relevant cell behaviors by manipulating a key hub in cell communication networks. The manipulation of this communication node, reported in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, makes it possible to reprogram large parts of a cell's signaling network instead of targeting only a single receptor or cell signaling pathway.
The potential clinical value of the basic science discovery is the ability ...
2015-05-01
Dispersal and adaptation are two fundamental evolutionary strategies available to species given an environment. Generalists, like dandelions, send their offspring far and wide. Specialists, like alpine flowers, adapt to the conditions of a particular place.
Ecologists have typically modeled these two strategies, and the selective pressures that trigger them, by holding one strategy fixed and watching how the other evolves. New research published in the journal Evolution illustrates the dramatic interplay during the co-evolution of dispersal and adaptation strategies.
"This ...
2015-05-01
WASHINGTON --An intervention in the emergency department designed to encourage tobacco cessation in smokers appears to be effective. Two and a half times more patients in the intervention group were tobacco-free three months after receiving interventions than those who did not receive the interventions, according to a study published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ( END ...
2015-05-01
(BOSTON) -- If you opt to wear soft contact lenses, chances are you are using hydrogels on a daily basis. Made up of polymer chains that are able to absorb water, hydrogels used in contacts are flexible and allow oxygen to pass through the lenses, keeping eyes healthy.
Hydrogels can be up to 99 percent water and as a result are similar in composition to human tissues. They can take on a variety of forms and functions beyond that of contact lenses. By tuning their shape, physical properties and chemical composition and infusing them with cells, biomedical engineers have ...
2015-05-01
Consumers can reduce the risk of Campylobacter food poisoning by up to 99.2% by using disinfectant wipes in the kitchen after preparing poultry. This is according to research published today (Friday 01 May) in the Society for Applied Microbiology's Journal of Applied Microbiology.
Dr Gerardo Lopez and his colleagues at the University of Arizona in the USA used antibacterial wipes on typical counter top materials - granite, laminate, and ceramic tile - to see if they reduce the risk of the cook and their family or guests ingesting harmful bacteria.
The results from Dr ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Good things in store for retailers
How physical outlets complement virtual ones
