Bricks and The Bytes

One should not use himself as a yardstick as it might lead to biased inferences but at this instance I am referring to something which is already part of history. 15 years back if someone had time travelled and told me that in the year 2010 you will be shopping straight off your computers, I would have categorized him as yet another science fiction writer. Today standing in the middle of 2010 I have no hesitation to admit that I would have been grossly mistaken. I will be mistaken again if I am to assume that by next 15 years the commerce will completely migrate to the electronic format. But definitely a major portion of it will shift while the computers and the smart phones will enjoy a major share of that pie.

The new era of shopping will be something like it is displayed in this video and that too will be conducted from the comfort of one’s home or workplace. This is the future of Shopping.

I like enjoy strolling in the malls doing something popularly known as window shopping; appreciating the windows as much as the overall ambience of the place while indulging into impulsive buying once in a while. This is particularly true during the summers there are no better escape from the harsh middle-eastern weather. As a tribute I have dedicated a few of my earlier posts in an attempt to showcase the beautiful and glitzy malls of Dubai. Now I feel an urge to take a break from those malls and find out how things are shaping up in the cyber world. A peep into the malls made out of bits and bytes instead of bricks and mortar.

With due consideration to Amazon and their tribe (let their tribe increase), I still have not found a virtual mall that impressed me enough or I could showcase it. However there is no denying of their growing popularity and probably, that day not very far away when all malls will be compelled to operate its virtual branch (not just a homepage).

The trend most definitely is pointing towards the malls in the internet. The primary objective and basic intent of the two are no different. Both sell their merchandise while constantly trying to cater to the needs of all categories of visitors and offer them an experience which will compel them to revisit. They showcase the products in a way which allow the shopper an easy access to what they require and at the same time temp the casual visitor to buy something she didn't really plan rather did not need.

Many will agree that it does not happen automatically. The design team consisting of architects, engineers, Interior designers and other specialists contributes the most to help the shop owners to extract that extra dollar out. To understand why virtual malls are not as evolved as their earthly counterparts a bit of self analysis of mall design is necessary. In my opinion both the physical and virtual mall should be created based on the same set of fundamental design principles. It should be providing similar shopping experience to the shoppers and the visitors. While it is a well accepted fact that any developer will engage a team of architects, engineers and interior designers to prepare the design of a mall right at the concept stage, there seems to be a notion that a handful of programmers and computer nerds could put together a virtual mall. Perhaps this reluctance to accept that a virtual mall requires a team of Artists, graphic designers and 3D Visualizers to lead the creative team with active technological support from programmers and software engineers is the biggest hurdle. May be this is the reason why these are not evolving as malls and leaving lot to be desired. It should be similar to the conventional type where the Architects and the Interior designer take the lead in the front of the house while the structural Designers and the Electro Mechanical Engineers put together the Back Of the house.

Another obstacle is undoubtedly the mindset of people which needs to be won over. The sense of insecurity due to periodic bad publicity generated due to cyber crime reporting is paramount. While statistics will prove that the number crimes committed in the cyber world is crime is far too less as compared to its physical counterpart but this lack of confidence in the shoppers lingers on. A well lit mall with security cameras and uniformed guards provide the visitor with an immense sense of safety and security very naturally. The security systems have to take giant leaps to achieve anything distantly similar to that in the cyber world. Nobody realizes that we tend to lose more in the conventional mall than virtual one. While acyber fraudster could steal your credit card details and drain upto the card limit, a pick pocket could steal purse and one could end up losing credit limit from all the cards in there. However this threat does not deter us from going shopping. But for the shop-owners a few physical detectors stops the pilferage while if someone manage to break into the online store he could create mayhem.

... and finally it is only a matter of time before the Bytes actually catches up with the bricks!