Retail: Retail's Final Frontier?

Consequently, lost sales due to out of stocks, excess inventory and the need for clearance sales are all minimized. All this improves any company’s margins.

But what about the customer who absolutely needs to look, feel and touch an item before making a purchase?

Back to the Future?
One retail chain we work with is testing the concept of converting its stores into showrooms. The idea is to have limited inventory at each store — just enough to allow customers to handle items and try them on if they want. But then all orders are fulfilled from a centralized warehouse and shipped to the customer. A big step forward in increased cost efficiency.