It will be interesting to see if Amazon can create a one-day event to rival the traditional major shopping events, such as Black Friday. It’s impossible to miss the push they’ve made recently to expand the reach of their Prime membership, with television ads in multiple countries promoting their mid-year sale as ‘Prime Day.’
High street retailers need to consider how they will effectively compete in the long-term with the retail and supply chain behemoth; one way is to capitalise on the assets they have that Amazon doesn’t. Retailers with both an online and brick-and-mortar presence need to start using the inventory in their stores to their advantage, offering it for immediate pickup (without a £79 membership fee, mind you) and even shipping items from store to shoppers’ homes rather than letting the inventory sit in a marked-down heap in the store. By using some of their stores as ‘mini-distribution centres’ many retailers can offer inventory in more places than the online pure players. This cuts down both the cost and time taken for deliveries to reach the end consumer and puts retailers on a stronger footing when competing with the online giant.
John Pincott
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