There is an article in today’s Tennessean about how the lines of local retail and e-commerce are getting further blurred. It is this neat retail ecosystem similar to the brackish water where a river meets the ocean.
The article talks about how the three local malls owned by CBL Properties (Cool Springs, Hickory Hollow, and Rivergate) have started to offer online tools to check if the item you want is in stock. This is not exactly ground breaking; big box electronics retailers have been doing this for years.
This is something we have been considering doing at Plato’s Closet of Cool Springs. Of course, it is a particularly difficult problem because our “item catalog” changes by the minute. In the past we have posted aggregate information about subsets of our inventory like “We currently have 23 pairs of 7 for All Mankind Jeans”. That is somewhat effective, but people want to be able to “shop”, both online and off. Luckily, it is easier for us to add online shopping for our customers than it is for something like BlueFly to add a local store to browse.
I know people enjoy shopping at Plato’s Closet. The question is, would they like shopping our store online in a way that is feasible for us to provide. It is unlikely that we can ever integrate actual item pictures into an online inventory browsing tool. We can do brand, size, and price pretty easily; adding color and description may be feasible. Would that be compelling? I am not so sure.
While I enjoy being on the leading edge of some things, this is an area where I think it will pay to let other’s innovate. If you try using the NearbyNow service, please let me know what you think.
Of course, as much as I would like to let other’s innovate, I would also love to implement product alerts for customers who would like us to be on the lookout for a particular item. How cool would it be if you could go to our Plato’s Closet website and tell us “let me know when you get a Coach purse or some Hollister Jeans in a size 4″, and then get a Text Message on your phone the day we buy item(s) matching your search. I think that would be sweet. Is the investment worth the return? I am not so sure.
