Over the past few weeks, I’ve research, interviewed and written a case study about one of New Zealand’s largest and oldest retailers - a sort of Sears Roebuck to make a North American comparison. I suggest Sears because the ‘over-a-century-old’ appliance and electronics retailer Bond + Bond built their business - in part - by getting products, which otherwise would only be available to urban dwellers, to the rural communities.

In the case study, Linda Geary (business development manager for parent company Noel Leeming Group) emphasized time and again the reason for building out the website the way they did - the customer.

As she points out (in no uncertain terms):

“The long term holistic view of retail suggests that customers will choose their natural channel at the time of purchase and may change at will using a hybrid or mixture of channels. The point is, it’s the customers choice.”

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Multi-channel retailer talks about customer choice in case study »

Why is a printed magazine about websites relevant? Why do websites matter anyhow? Is a social network page a website? Is a blog a website? and, What will become of websites as technology evolves? These questions and more are posed to Website Magazine’s Christian Wilson by Get Elastic host Dave O while at Internet Retailer 2007 in San Jose.

MP3 File

Dave O talk websites with Website Magazine’s Christian Wilson
at Internet Retailer 2007

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