It comes as no surprise to Webtron that bricks n' mortar retailers such as Borders/ Angus and Robertson are again in the news for all the wrong reasons. Here again is another sign of the times. These companies have been moving too slowly and the business models that are no longer competitive with online retailers. This is a pattern which is only going to become more obvious over the next couple of years with other traditional retailers who do not embrace online with vigour and imagination.

In

the book business online is exploding much the same as most industries. One statistic comes from PayPal who saw an 87% increase in online book sales to Australia in the last 12 months.

The Future

 I believe Angus and Robertson and Borders will reincarnate in a different form.

One that has sheds itself of the traditional Bricks n' Mortar old economy dead weight and move to new economy e:g less retail outlets, less staff, less in store stock, aggressive online investment (e-commerce, social networking, online marketing) and probably increased specialisation for the stores that do survive.