Mabel and Lou Boutique, a women’s clothing store owned by Alexis Nelson located in Keene, N.H., is set to close its in-person store on March 1, according to The Keene Sentinel. Nelson said the store’s online operations will continue.
This is an excellent decision from Nelson. She told The Sentinel around 80% of business is already from online orders. Fully transitioning to an online store allows her to retain the majority of her customers while cutting the expenses that come with a physical location. Nelson said that there will still be an in-person pick up option to avoid the shipping fee, which she noted as the primary reason people came to the store anyway.
The transition is not going to come without its drawbacks. “I hope to remain close with the community of women that we get to see all of the time, because that’s the saddest part for me,” Nelson told The Sentinel.
As the world is becoming increasingly digital, businesses need to adapt. Toys-R-Us is perhaps the most well known example of a company going out of business partly because of their failure to adapt.
In addition to a variety of management issues, Toys-R-Us had too many lackluster locations and poor online shopping options as the market shifted to online shopping, according to Danice Dahlhof on the Knowledge at Wharton podcast. “Competitors like Amazon, Walmart and Target have been very strong online, so that also added to the difficulties,” she said.
If businesses want to be successful in this current market dominated by mega corporations, then they need to invest heavily in online spaces. Amazon quite literally revolutionized the way we shop, and in order for smaller businesses to be competitive, they have to buy into online shopping.
Toys-R-Us is an extreme example, but nonetheless a warning to stores everywhere in prioritizing online shopping over physical stores. Nelson already gets most of her business from online shopping. Making this move also allows her to invest more time and money into the online platform, while also allowing her to spend more time with her family, no longer having to be away from home.
I have a heavy preference for shopping online. It is more convenient to pull up a website on my phone, scroll for a couple minutes and then buy something, then to drive or walk all the way to a store, spend time walking around and waiting in line. It is also nice to save gas money. I do not mind having to wait a couple days for something as it always feels like a little surprise when it arrives.
While I do enjoy going to stores, I can help but see the cons, especially when it comes to clothes, like in the case of Mabel and Lou Boutique. There is little consistency in online shopping for sizing and quality. You are not able to feel the clothes and see if you like the way it feels. You trade assurance of satisfaction for convenience and I am willing to make this trade.
Harvie Marcotti can be contacted at
hmarcotti@kscequinox.com
