Back to Brick and Mortar – How Blockchain is Transforming the Retail Industry

Over the past decade, we have witnessed a huge boom in the popularity of ecommerce shopping. Almost everything you could ever think of can now be purchased online.

Despite reports that retail is dying, statistics have shown that this may not actually be the case at all. In fact, retail could be on the cusp of making its comeback.

While 51% of Americans prefer to shop online, 49% still prefer the experience of shopping in store.

Why Ecommerce Won’t Ever Fully Replace Shopping

Many people have speculated that ecommerce will replace retail. However, there are multiple reasons why it’s unlikely to ever even come close.

While ecommerce has completely revolutionized the way we shop and made it easier than ever before, it has also removed a significant amount of magic from the process.

When making a purchase is as easy as typing in a few keywords and clicking ‘Add to Cart,’ on the cheapest product you can find with the highest reviews, all the emotion and excitement of shopping is completely ripped away.

On a more practical note, it can often be difficult to tell if an item you’re looking at online is actually what you need. For example, it’s far harder to tell whether a pair of trousers will look as good on you as they do on a model by simply looking at a picture online.

Similarly, when spending a large amount of money on an expensive purchase, nothing beats going to the store and holding the product in your hands to make sure it’s definitely the right decision.

Finally, for the most impatient of us out there, even Amazon Prime’s same-day delivery doesn’t beat going to your local store and picking up the item we need right there and then. Sometimes we just can’t wait.

How Blockchain is Merging Ecommerce with Retail

One of the main issues with shopping in retail stores instead of buying products online is that it’s more difficult to find out information about the product you’re interested in.

After all, it’s exceedingly rare that the manufacturer’s description of a product exactly matches what users thought of it. Any good advertiser will be positively biased in favor of the product they’re trying to sell.

Aside from being able to make purchases quickly without even getting up out of your chair, one of the main draws of online shopping is that it makes it incredibly easy to find out what others thought of the product through simply looking at ratings and reading through reviews.

Shping is a new blockchain startup that solves this problem. It merges the convenience of ecommerce with the fun and excitement of retail – and even rewards people for using it.

After downloading the app, users can shop like normal. When they want to find out more information about an item from the store, they can just use the app to scan the barcode.

This will tell them everything they need to know, including what is in it, where it was made, whether it is certified, and what others thought of it.

Rewarded For Shopping? How Does That Work?

The rise of blockchain technology introduces many new concepts that we’d previously never even imagined to be possible.

Now, instead of a brand’s advertising budget being spent on third-party advertisers, platforms like Shping are cutting out the middleman completely shifting the dynamic so that rewards will be sent directly to the user.

In return for scanning products, writing reviews, and providing ratings and information about products they own, users will be rewarded in the form of Shping coins.

This tokenization system gives users an incentive to use the app and provide valuable information for other users. Users can then use this information to make an informed choice when making a decision about which products to buy.

The Future of Retail – Is It Making a Comeback?

After the decline in retail sales over the past decade, 2017 has shown new evidence that traditional retail is going to be making a comeback.

There is increasing evidence that retail and online shopping need one another to co-exist.

It has become more important than ever that retailers are able to reach customers wherever they are.

Blockchain startups like Shping could just be what we’ve been waiting for.

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