Over 72% of people prefer shopping in stores to e-commerce

Close to 72 per cent people continue to prefer to shop in stores as opposed to e-commerce sites, according to a recent report. About 70 per cent of the survey respondents said that they plan to shop in stores in 2017 as often as they did last year and close to 14 per cent said that they will shop more often in stores than they did in 2016.

The report titled 'The State of Retail 2017' is based on a survey conducted by TimeTrade. It says that 49 per cent of shoppers would consider leaving the store if there were no associate to help them in the dressing room. About 38 per cent of shoppers said they liked the idea of augmented reality technology in stores, and 45 per cent said they would need to see how well it worked before deciding.

If an item is available online as well as in a nearby store, about 75 per cent of the respondents would prefer to buy it in-store as opposed to online, says the report.

"As the line between online and in-store retail shopping becomes more and more blurred, employing time tested practices is not going to be enough. For businesses of all types, no matter how big or small, there cannot simply be 'online only' or 'in-store only'. Businesses are figuring this out, and most well-known physical retail stores now have online counterparts," notes the report.

"Retailers need to pay close attention to who their shoppers are, noting how they like to shop and what types of technology they can implement to craft better experiences," said Gary Ambrosino, CEO of TimeTrade.