Retail: Retail's Final Frontier?

This is the last of a three-part series examining the current and future state of brick-and-mortar retail and how it’s being integrated into other forms of retail. Parts 1 and 2 ran in our June and July issues.

The nature of the internet business model allows more centralized inventory control and more efficient order and fulfillment management than a retail store network. And of course with centralized fulfillment, online merchants don’t incur the cost of distributing inventory around the country, or even throughout a region. In addition, they can extend or cancel promotions depending upon demand and inventory levels.