@m-jeri , yeah staff can open new store, but who will provide investment, it will take another 5-6 year to reach TE level, by that time they already lost their good times of life. who will pay salary for 5-6 yr, which will normally take to make the forum profitable, would you like to start from zero in your life 2-3 times ?
i am not saying stop ecommerce shop, but limit their activity what they are doing these days. Manufacturer should provide items at same cost price to B&M stores as that of of estore, with negligible diff of 5-8% , also discounts offered by manufacturer to this estore should match with the discount offered to B&M retailers, and estore shouldn't be allowed to undercut cost price by paying from their pockets, just to attract more customer to show more turnover to attract more investment.
Lets make the ground equal for estore as well as local store, the estore will have uphand in showcaing 1 lac product, while local store have benefit in proving hand-in experience, so both will get their equal share of biz, in accordance to the customer.
I don't have any idea of USA market so can't comment about it.
Lemme tell you real example, search any woodland shoes in online estore, there won't be any discount, or hardly discounts on it, this is because of the reason, woodland had warned each and every company, that if they provide any additional discounts other than which is offered, they will stop supplying stocks to them.Discounts offered online match the same offer offered in local stores. This came out as a result of woodland store sales getting tanked due to estore discounts, and setting up each woodland store requires investment of 30-50 lacs.
This is the reason why brands like K-lounge, Donear, Siyaram, Raymonds don't offer stocks to e-store, since they do know how they can easily destroy their brands.
Many people support estore now, just because they are offering handsome discount, not because they are offering wide range which might be available locally, or they are able to order to home, offer same price for same items, both type of biz will find their own customers.
Try to look from business personal perspective as well as from consumer perspective.
if any estore want to offer heavy discounts, manufacture your own product, and give them for free to user, and then show how you survive the market. They are currently providing subsidy on premium brands, which normal user cannot think to buy on normal MRP