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Jack

On 1/12/2017 10:39 PM, wrote:
On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 9:37:06 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:

It's not hindsight, it is now. Sears could have easily shifted to
online sales at any time, but my guess is management had their
collective heads where the sun don't shine.

Amazon started from scratch, Sears had a long history of catalog sales.
They blew it big time by ignoring the CURRENT trends. How on earth could
a retail store with a history of catalog sales IGNORE Amazon? Brain
dead is what I think.

--
Jack

You seem to believe everything is so easy. Back in August Wal-Mart paid $3 BILLION for Jet.com online sales company. After spending years trying to increase online sales at Wal-Mart. Did all the fools at Wal-Mart have their head up their behinds? Why couldn't they just make online sales magically? Why? Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. How could they not know how to sell online?

Business is seldom easy unless you have a monopoly. I think it's easier
for a multi-billion dollar retail company to set up an on line business
than someone with no money, no sales experience, no products and so on.

I bought my earphones a few months ago on-line from Walmart, not Amazon,
so they are doing something about it. IF they get it wrong, they will
run into problems, just like everyone else. As fast as on-line sales is
growing, retail stores are dying. That's why I say hindsight is not it,
it is now, get with it now or die a slow death. If you can't get on-line
sales to work, you better get new people that know how to get it
working. Sears didn't, but they were killing their business before
on-line came into being, so no surprise there.

As for comparing catalog sales to online sales. Maybe they are similar, maybe not. Catalog sales for Sears started dying out in the 50s, 60s. They had physical stores so no need for catalog sales. And the US became far more urban, not rural, in the second half of the century. Today everyone almost lives in a city or near a city. So today almost everyone is close to a physical Sears store. Why would they use a catalog? Online sales you have 50 choices and prices. Catalog you have 5. Are they the same? I have a tool catalog from Acme Tools on the shelf. I doubt I would order anything from it. I'd go to the store in town or use the internet. Is a catalog the same as online ordering, even in philosophy?

I think catalog sales and online sales are almost identical. On-line is
cheaper and easy to keep up to date. Today, people occasionally go to a
retail store if in a super hurry, bored, or want to physically see and
touch a product before ordering it on-line.
--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com