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As a matter of fact, there is. A successful strategy that is emerging among savvy retailers is one of synergy between online and offline operations. When done properly, online sites can not only be profitable, they can also drive traffic to stores as part of an overall positioning/ branding/selling equation.
Who is making this clicks and mortar strategy work? Home Depot, Sears and Ace Hardware are good examples in one category. Each blends a high quality Web site (where thousands of non-inventoried items can be ordered), with a nationwide network of stores (where customers can pick up or special-order items through electronic kiosks).
Another category of retailers applying the clicks and mortar strategy is office supply stores. Staples.com, for example, generates a huge component of parent company sales. Likewise, Office Depot runs 750 superstores, but is also the largest office supply retailer on the Internet, with $250 million in sales last year. Impressively, online operations are profitable, a claim few e-tailers can make. (Secret to profitability: a focus on business-to-business e-commerce with Office Depot's 37,000 corporate clients.)
In the apparel category,...