Brick-And-Mortar Stores Are Fighting Back…Sometimes In An Annoying Way

Used to be when you went into a store, it was easy to find what you were looking for. Goods for sale were organized logically so you could navigate the aisles and shelves. Then came the online buying sites with their search functions that made it even easier to find your item, just by entering a key word.

Everyone predicted the demise of the brick-and-mortar stores: “There’s no way they can afford to pay rent, salaries and utilities, and the cost of all that inventory up front and compete with the prices charged by the sites who don’t have that kind of overhead.”

Well, the stores are fighting back. By making it easier yet to find your product? Nope. By making it harder. That’s right. The only way they can compete is to force you to walk around the store in search of the thing you came to buy, getting you to bump into a whole bunch of other goods, all in the hopes of enticing you to buy some other things you didn’t know you wanted.

I went looking for a running cap in a big sporting goods store. “Where are your caps,” I asked. “They’re spread out all over the store,” the salesperson replied, waving his arms in a big, expansive gesture. “There’s some over there, and a few more over by the wall, and then here’s some right here on this end cap.”

I went here and then there, and tried on a few, and they all looked goofy. Nothing like the simple, light-weight unstructured cap I was looking for. I finally settled on one that seemed pretty close, except the front two panels of the crown were reinforced with a hard mesh that made it stand up too much. I got it home and tried it on for my friend, who squinted and shook her head. “No, I don’t think that’s it.”

So, I went online, typed in “running caps,” found the one I wanted and ordered two. Then I took the near-miss cap back to the big sporting goods store for a refund, which was processed mechanically and without any questions about why I was returning it.

Here’s the thing:  I was willing to buy from the big store, but couldn’t find what I wanted. I would have even paid more for the convenience of getting it right away and not having to wait for it to arrive in the mail. Heck, the store I visited might actually have it, but I couldn’t find it the way the store was laid out, and there was nobody there to really help me. The folks there seemed content — maybe they intended — to have me stagger around, looking for my cap, the layout making sure I was confronted by dozens of other items they hoped I’d buy.

Here’s another thing: The ones I ordered online were actually about 20% more than the one I bought in the big store!

I wish brick-and-mortar stores could make it easier to find what I’m looking for: How about a kiosk with a search feature that lets you type in a key word, then shows you where to find it on a map of the store?

Sure, the online store wanted to sell me other stuff I didn’t come looking for too, but the way they went about it was to pop a message that said “People also bought X, Y and Z” but that was after I’d found the cap I was looking for. And somehow that seems less annoying.

Look at each of the ways you’ve modified your customer experience to respond to actions by competitors. Has it created an unintended negative consequence for people trying to buy your products and services?