Umm, so then why aren’t your sales better?

Step away for a moment from the miserable story of falling freight rates and continual overcapacity, and consider how retailers are faring with their onmi-channel offerings. For the past few years it has become the mantra for retailers to offer shoppers a choice of ways of buying products, based on the belief that the more avenues they provide, the more consumers will spend. Not so, says this fascinating blog from Steve Dennis: “Most investment in better e-commerce–or omni-channel functionality like “buy online pick-up in store”–is defensive; that is, if a brand doesn’t do it they risk losing share. But it’s harder and harder to make the claim that it’s going to grow top-line sales faster than the competition.”