Price Competition between online retailers and High St shops Essay

Price Competition between online retailers and High St shops - Essay Example ive stores went up by 18 percent while those that practiced online sales along with convectional shop keeping experienced 2 percent decline in growth (Passingham 2013). In spite of the increase in demand for online transactions, the amounts customers have to pay for the products keep dropping; the mean value at the checkout is estimated to have reduced by over 10% since 2011. This is evidence that the online customers are using the convenience of online stores to shop for deals. Online shops have a competitive edge in that they can afford to sell their goods for considerably less than their high street counterparts do (Kelsey 2013). The latter have to account for the cost of; lease, security, staffing and myriad other costs of doing business and the higher overheads ultimately weigh in on their competitive advantage. For online stores, there is the added convenience of transcending geographical boarders; a clothing shop in London will be mostly out of bounds for customers living far from the city but the online one is open to anyone anywhere. This way, the customer base for online stores is significantly larger than that of high street ones (Kelsey, 2013). Firm’s like ASOS, which deals in both men and women’s clothes, have capitalized on the online marketing sector. Today, it is one of the most profitable clothing stores in the UK because of its online presence, which allows it to cater for the needs of next generations shoppers. Many of these are used to getting everything online and as a result, ASOS provides an opportunity for them to easily and conveniently access fashion accessories. They also provide services, which allow customers to â€Å"try on† the clothes online virtually which makes them even less likely to go for a high-end street shop. High street stores on the other hand have also upped their efforts to remain competitive in the quickly digitalizing market, one of the main methods applied is the opening of websites and online stores so they