Shops have what online stores don't - Retail Therapy!!

Bubba Moe Slings like many other companies are known as a manufacturing wholesaler/retailer. We supply to the general public via our website, then to stores as a wholesaler.
In this era, a business without a website could be viewed with some suspicion as not being bone fide. Any retailable consumer product should be supported by a website.
For retailers, 99.9% of products sold, are researched online previously by the consumer. When a customer comes through the door, its up to the salesperson to sell the customer the product they need or want. When a customer walks in the door they mostly do so voluntarily, I have yet to experience where a salesperson has dragged me off the street into their store and forced me to buy something before I am allowed to leave.

There are many reasons why people walk in and a lot of reasons why they walk out, leaving empty handed and the shop's till just as empty.

Retailers hate wholesalers that have their own website because it detracts business from them. I can't entirely disagree with that, though it does attract business for them in the same token.
Most retailers will challenge that the wholesaler is undercutting their prices. I agree that a hefty amount of wholesalers do, yet those who do will ultimately sign their own demise, as it also increases consumer suspicion.
Why should a retailer stock an item which is priced  20-30% lower by the wholesaler, (with exception for reason),  retailers cannot compete and will seek to stock items that don't come with a price battle. Unfortunately popular brands come can come with a price battle, unknown brands come with a sales battle. Little do most retailers know that they themselves hold a wild card. A wild card that can actually win them the battle.
Many retailers do suffer 'reconaissiance traps', where the customer comes into the store seeking as much information as possible, only to leave the store and purchase online. The sales person has spent a considerable amount of time and energy, completely educating the customer only to have another business benefit from that exercise, when that customer decides to leave the store to purchase 'online' elsewhere. Why do these customers walk out?

I'll tell you why I walk out
1) Not satisfied with information given
2) Want the product but not the colours available in the store at the time
3) Not happy with the service or general atmosphere
4) Need to process the information given a little further.
5) Not quite the right time to purchase, still need information
With options 1 to 3, it will be rare that I return to purchase that product, with number 4 & 5, I more than likely will return to purchase.
It boils down to one little but powerful human aspect- trust.

Very rarely will I make a decision purely based on price, unless it's extreme. Convenience will always outrank price. I will not travel 50 km to save $5, if it costs me $20 in petrol and $15 in tolls, nor will I order it online if it takes 2 weeks and a certain amount of uncertainty till it actually arrives just to save a buck or two.
If it's in the shop there and then, the salesperson is an expert, making me comfortable that the product will live up to my needs & expectations, I will feel more than 'special' walking out with it in a nice store bag on my way to a cafe for a conclusional Chai Latte while sporting a grin closer to a Cheshire cat.
That's what I call Retail Therapy.

I simply love a dose of Retail Therapy! its a hoot, its fun and its a complete experience. I work hard for my income and who doesn't, so I like my money to work hard for me. I want to be wooed, I want that feel good uplifting feeling that comes with the touchy feely of that freshly purchased product. I have it in my hot little hands and its mine.

The last time I bought something on line, it went something like this.
Pyjama clad, 5am cup of instant coffee by my side, 14 google pages with many repeated repeats of businesses I didn't care to visit, lots of image checks (which by the way, were woeful & tiny, causing eye strain), I made my purchase.
Whipped out the credit card, paid and was left with an email that said "Thank you for your order" and a headache bigger than Ben Hur. That's it! That's all I get, nix, nothing, nil.
I sat there drumming my fingers on the desk, quietly, for all the intelligent members of the household were asleep.
I was feeling a little empty, depleted, even a little under excited, for the purpose. OK I didn't leave the house, but I also had nothing to show for it. It equated to an anticlimax without ever getting to a climax in the first place. Retail Therapy in reverse
I realised that I did get something immediate from the exercise, it was a package called 'wait'.
Wait I did.
Four weeks after the dawn purchase, when it almost became a distant memory, it twigged that it hadn't arrived yet. It twigged because my daughters birthday was approaching at lightening speed, and this purchase was for her. A few emails, a few left messages, a few more emails, a few more left messages, all with no answer what so ever.
My girl's 21st birthday had come and gone without this special purchase arriving at all. I had no excuse to offer, because I had 21 years to get ready for this special day. The word 'heel' was, I believe clearly flaming across my head and no amount of visits to The Bad Mothers website will cover the disappointment my daughter felt at its absence.


Why did I buy it online in the first place, easy, because I couldn't buy one from a shop. None of the sales assistants would offer to order one in for me either.