Size Matters, How E-Commerce Align with Brick & Mortar Stores
Brick-and-Mortar is a popular term for retail stores that customers can visit in person. In contrast to the online store, which does not offer customer-facing services, these businesses provide a more personal shopping experience. They also often present friendly and inviting storefronts that enhance street experiences.
E-Commerce Vs. Brick-And-Mortar
However, since the dot com bubble, people tend to think that booming e-commerce threatens brick-and-mortar stores. Many physical retail stores are often competed by online stores with lower overhead, including rent and staffing costs.
According to a Census report, E-commerce has grown steadily since 2010; except for a brief sales jump during the lockdown, eCommerce sales constitute about 14% of entire retail sales.
That data also demonstrated more customers are used to completing their purchases online. And that consumer habit encourages more entrepreneurs to begin their business with an online presence, especially among females.
“the new crop of main street entrepreneurs are finding success first online then opening their physical storefront” — Jennifer Overstreet, National Retail Federation.
According to the 2018 NRF survey, among those young businesses (less than three years), 36 % choose only to have an online presence. The online presence helps entrepreneurs quickly kick off their business without putting in substantial upfront capital and binding with a lease, increasing their chance to survive and grow steadily in the startup period for the first three to five years. As they gain a more extensive customer base, it is easier for them to secure a physical location. One good example is Warby Parker. It was founded primarily as an online retailer, then gradually grew its physical presence.
The sketch in a later paragraph will show how these businesses could thrive in a conventional neighborhood retail setting.
Typical Neighborhood Retail Stores Setting
Those main street businesses are often located at the podium level of a mixed-use complex or as part of a suburban strip mall. Most of them have 60 feet to 80 feet depth of store plate. This depth suits restaurants, convenience stores, or auto body repair services requiring back-of-house storage space.
This image illustrates a typical neighborhood retail. It uses a 20-foot module as store frontage. This sketch shows a 12,000 square feet retail floor plate facing the street with 12,000 square feet parking in the rear.
“Micro Business”
These 60 to 80 feet deep store plates are often too large or costly for some businesses that only need at most 1000 square feet to operate. For the sake of discussion, this type is called “micro-business.”
We categorize them as follows.
- Neighborhood essentials: they are the traditional neighborhood small retailers that have existed for a long time and operated with physical space. They are telecommunication stores, bakeries, ice cream or chocolate shops, etc. Still, you often find them in a centralized shopping mall instead of within walking distance in your neighborhood.
- Online diva: they have a robust online presence (either on their website or on sharing platforms such as Etsy or eBay). They move to a brick-and-mortar space to extend their virtual image to a physical presence.
- Kiosk king: The third type is those who utilize kiosks in shopping malls. These are often franchised. They could be a mini-massage spa (those you often see in airports), macarons & cookies, a juice bar, accessories, souvenirs, phone repair, etc. But most of the time, they only need one or two persons per kiosk.
- Single-digit LLC: The last is a small office with fewer than three to five employees. They could be small startups and professional services (such as accountants, attorneys, or financial professionals). Sometimes even the administrative office runs the ghost kitchen.
The services listed above do not require a deep plate. Since the retail stores have existed in the neighborhood, building a new, less depth of retail store seems impractical. Therefore, aggregating more of these businesses on the same floor would be a better alternative. Strategically mixing them will maximize the use of existing vacant stores, enhance our pedestrian experience and fortify the neighborhoods.
The image illustrates morphed neighborhood retail. In this sketch, the leasing space is divided into two zones. One is the street-facing shallower plate, and the other is the rear-facing deeper plate. The standard leasing space in this image is 2400–2500 square feet. A planner can divide the room into two zones, the deeper plate for office or administrative use and a street-facing for small retails. The retail space in this example is 400 square feet and can be expanded in 400 square feet increments.
Marcia’s Story:
A hypothetical scenario, imagine Marcia, an owner of a custom design jewelry studio, who makes all her collections by hand and has an online shop on Etsy. One day she has enough collection and wants to open a physical shop in her neighborhood. All she needs is this 400-square foot street-facing store, and she shares studio space in the back office of the strip when she does the customization or overhead work.
Added Sustainable Benefit To Our Storefronts
Last bonus! As we are keen on sustainability, it is worth mentioning that there are surveys that found shoppers claiming that they will spend 9% to 12% more for goods and services in a district with a high-quality tree canopy. Another study found shoppers report they would stay longer, which could mean more sales revenue. Generally, shoppers are willing to spend more when shopping in pleasing natural settings.
Here are some good examples:
This sketch shows what the retail corridor would look like on a typical neighborhood street. One side of the retail is constituted by restaurants, convenience stores, or other types of shops that require a deeper plate. A row of parallel-parking spaces forms a visual barrier from higher-speed traffic, so people dining in the sidewalk café would feel safer. The other side of the street is aggregated with “micro-businesses” that only need a shallower plate. A variety of display windows enhances pedestrians’ and bikers’ street experience.
This illustration shows what the retail corridor would look like on the street with 64 feet of roadway and 94 feet of right-of-way. The shallower plate could form continuous engaging ground floor activities for pedestrians and shoppers.
Above is a successful example of how urban trees are integrated into a retail corridor in a neighborhood. Tree canopies form a sense of refugee and comfortable feeling not only for the pedestrians but also for the cars passing by. This planning strategy also subconsciously helps passing vehicles reduce their speed.
