Digital and Physical are Blurred by the Existence of Mobile

E-commerce attracts the attention of many people, not only to those who like shopping but also to those who are not since they might couple times purchase their daily needs online. The distinction was clear enough between e-commerce and commerce a couple of years ago, but it is fading as the rapid change of technology. Laptop or Personal Computer becomes the primary tool to purchase online that relates to e-commerce, while commerce is the art of purchasing through its physical store. Therefore, it is easy for the retailers to report the percentage of sale between the profit/loss that they gain from commerce and e-commerce.

However, for the long-term coming years ahead, the lines between physical and digital will be blurred as the new entrants of mobile will be hardly applied. The shopping patterns will change because people or consumers change their behavior. Both, physical store based and digital applications will be applied at the same time. Meaning to say that it is no longer an option either to apply physical or digital store. Applying both “online” and “offline” is known as “multichannel or omnichannel” is a result of the retailer shifting from only traditional to be traditional and digital. The customer may purchase at the store, but finishing or “check out” the transaction through their mobile phone. Therefore, it affects the existence of the banking industry and retails to grow and offer within the multichannel environment.

Multichannel shopping grows six times greater than online shopping. Hence, the financial services, retailers, payment providers, and commerce ecosystem should think deeply about how they combine their channels. Mobile is the bridge between the digital and physical world because it is the thing that people carry most of the times, even during sleep. It changes the fundamental between the way of shopping and how they pay for their transactions. By applying the multichannel environment, it will keep the customer and banking industry attach to one another or they are connected more personal and this is the new experience that customer’s feel.

*source: Dan Schatt, Virtual Banking – A Guide to Innovation and Partnering (Book)

Rewrite by Shinta Amalina. H. Havidz