I may not be that normal in many respects, but I do often get onto trends quite early and this year, I have shopped for Christmas differently to any other year before – and I think shopping may never be the same again.
I’ve written lots about the perfect economy, price driven shopping and how branding can help build differentiation. I’ve even written about online/offline price matching but this year it all clicked into place and a few online retailers got all my business.
Some examples.
Fifa 11. RRP £52 HMV high street price £39.99. Game High Street Price £39.99. Amazon price £24.91 delivered. Using the Red Laser App on my phone, I actually bought it on my Amazon account on my phone standing in HMV. I hope Red Laser are taking a commission.
Morse the Complete Collection. RRP £199.99 (yeah right!) Morrisons £50. Amazon price £34.97 delivered. Again, bought standing in Morrisons.
And I bought from Boots, Tesco, Dixons and a few others too. All turned up in plenty of time and I saved a small fortune without having to brave the ridiculous queues at the tills in the stores. There must have been 50 people queuing in the unsurprisingly poor performing HMV. They are playing into the hands of online retailers.
Again, I don’t think i’m particularly tight, but I can see no reason at all to pay more for an identical product and the privilige of buying on the high street.
If the high street doesn’t just want to become a gigantic Amazon showroom, it needs to find a way of reflecting the price of the online retailers.
Sports Direct match online to offline, and I’ve shown before that Waterstones and HMV don’t. Which do you think is likely to still be in business by February?
Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking 
John, the even bigger question is exactly what Amazon will be doing a few years from now, when I’m having music, movies, games etc delivered by broadband. May be that’s why they have diversified into gadgets and other stuff. I sympathise on the HMV front – they don’t look like they are investing in a way forward. Still have a soft spot for Waterstones, though – one of my favourite escapes in Nottingham.
The Waterstones issue is a real problem. I love book shops and have written before about the fact that we only have Waterstones and WH Smiths left in town to buy books from. It would be a huge shame to see them slide away, but unless they sharpen up I can’t see them surviving. What must the rent be on that fantastic site they occupy?
HMV feel a bit of an inevitable one to fail though.
I guess Waterstones is one for Sean Akins to mull over!
Obviously ‘matching’ online prices is one strategy – creating an amazing ‘customer experience’ MAY be another for some!