Failed Retailers

As most everyone is aware of, many retailers have gone down hill recently, mainly due to our economic crisis right now. Some are in trouble, while others lost everything and went bankrupt. Most of this has just been in the past several months, which has shocked many people.

A main reason why all of the retailers that have failed in the past few months did not survive is said to be because they did not have an "adequate e-commerce system" in place. Executive Chairman at Regent Partners, Peter Rowell, agreed and said that this was "probably no surprise" that not a single one of the organizations had a decent online platform and is why they are struggling now, or failed completely. He also noted that many of the traditional retailers are doing well at the moment, but may have to tweak when necessary to keep up with the recession. Also, Tennon Recovery recently spoke out about this same issue. They recently claimed that retailers can risk failure if they do not have a good e-commerce website in place, because these days the medium offers lower costs and better customer reach than other channels. I totally agree with this because in the day and time we live in now, it is all about convenience and everyone is always with their computers. It also helps, especially the younger generation and the business world to have the updated websites because we are constantly on the go, but the one thing we always check is our computers. If we are not able to virtually see something these days, a lot of times we are not interested.

Another reason a retailer might go down is because since were all about saving time these days, and convenience is key, people like to go to a one stop shop to get essentials. This is not entirely the retailers fault if those are the products they are selling, but they can do other things such as advertising and keeping up with the e-commerce, as stated above, that could help them. A retailer that I am aware of that has recently gone bankrupt is Linens n Things. Because of the time crunch and also saving money, people have been shopping for their bedding at other places such as Target. There may not be as much of a selection choice, but it is cheaper and a quicker stop. Other bedding places are still doing fairly well, such as Bed, Bath, and Beyond; so whatever they are doing is obviously working. Even if you are a successful retailer, the overall population is drastically cutting back on everything. Though you may still have enough to survive, does not mean that you will gain much profit. During the holidays many retailers discounted their items to practically nothing and are doing ok, but at that rate will not continue for long.

At times like these if you are a retailer and want to succeed, you should always go above and beyond, even if you are well known, because you never know what can happen!




http://www.pureinnovation.com/view-news/2009-02-13/193/lack-of-ecommerce-at-failed-retailers-unsurprising/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/09/BUP2154PT3.DTL