Store Hours Case 3 Delivery and Store

¶ … Store Hours

CASE 3 Delivery and Store Hours

The perennial time shortage that everyone faces today, from the youngest to the very oldest, is fertile ground for differentiating retailing strategies. Companies including WalMart today have stores open 24 hours, 7 days a week in the hope of capturing the elusive night shopping segment that makes significant purchases between midnight and 6 am (Richbell, Kite, 2007). Conversely the use of store hours to connote exclusivity and underscore the value of products is seen in Apple's store hours and the limited time windows to experience their Expert Bar of professional support in their retail locations (Carpenter, Balija, 2010). Apple and other high-end electronics retailers use delivery and store hours as a differentiator of their products and services, underscoring their uniqueness relative to competitors. Product delivery options and store hours are then a major factor in defining the emotion associated with a brand as well, with many exclusive brands using the shortened time horizon to drive the urgency of visiting their retail locations and buying while they are open (Carpenter, Balija, 2010). Yet these strategies are often used by those retailers with very high-margin products that have a relatively high degree of pricier elasticity given their unique and highly differentiated position. For the majority of consumers, these outlets are an aberration to their typical shopping and buying behavior.

For the rest of us, time is the most critical resource we have. As a result, those retail channels that respect time and make the buying process as accurate and efficient as possible are typically the most valued. Studies indicate that consumers are willing to trade a degree or two of trust in order to get greater convenience and purchasing options on commodity or low-risk products. The need for creating a high level of trust in the 24/7, always-on channel is critical for any multichannel strategy to succeed (Harridge-March, 2006). It is misnomer to think of channels as being in solation to each other, even when they are part of a broader multichannel selling and service strategy by retailers. In reality all channels are unified by the brand and the experiences it delivers including the hours of operation and relative levels of availability vs. exclusivity (Carpenter, Balija, 2010).