The line between traditional and online shopping is getting blurrier.
More retailers are opening “showrooms” that allow customers to try out merchandise before buying it. When customers decide to make a purchase, they order it online and have it shipped home.
“We do a better job of selling clothes because we don’t stock the clothes,” Andy Dunn, founder of men’s clothier Bonobos, told the Economist last week.
Bonobos operates about 20 showrooms across the United States. The company saves money because it doesn’t have to stock each location, and customers who purchase items after trying them on no longer have to worry about lugging around the baggage.
These types of shops also boost online sales, further driving package volumes in the shipping sector.
Even specialty retailers are getting in on the action.
Warby Parker, once an online-only eyewear company, recently began opening showrooms in Philadelphia.
“We don’t think of the future as purely online or brick and mortar, but rather a new blend of the two,” Neil Blumenthal, Warby Parker’s co-founder, told PhillyNews.com.