IDG Contributor Network: Adidas figures out how to win with physical stores

Physical retail chain executives routinely fret about their brick-and-mortar stores’ inability to effectively compete against e-commerce sites, including their own. They're right to, even though no site can ever match brick-and-mortar's many physical attributes, including touch, smell, taste, human interactions and true immediacy.

Other than a few merchants here and there that get it — including a cosmetics chain, a shoe chain, Hyundai and a New York City shopping mall — leveraging the advantages of brick-and-mortar seems to baffle much of retail. This makes it worthwhile to take note of another rare merchant that has figured it out.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here