Virtual Shopping in Canada?
While reading the blogs of my fellow classmates, I came across one article that particularly sparked my interest. This article was written by Demi, who introduced us to the concept of Virtual Supermarkets which was launched at Seonreung subway station in South Korea by Tesco Homeplus in early 2011.
Looking ahead in the class prep instructions, I know that we will soon be learning about the place/distribution “P” of the marketing mix. When learning about virtual shopping, my mind immediately made the connection with this “P”. Companies such as Homeplus that are investing in providing consumers with convenience of “shopping wherever they go,” are focusing on the distribution of their products. Using the appeal of simply scanning codes with people’s smartphones to have products delivered to people’s door step right after they arrive home is certainly an attractive benefit to customers. Through Tesco’s goal of “blending into consumers’ lives” and turning their customers’ ” waiting time into shopping time,” they have become one of the top companies in the online market.
Although Demi’s link to the video of how the Tesco Homeplus virutal shop works was quite informative, I was curious to find out when I would potentially have the chance to try virtual shopping. After searching on the web, I found that Well.ca and P&G actually partnered up just this past April to bring virtual shopping to downtown Toronto. Unfortunately, the trial only occurred for a month. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to try shopping at our skytrain stations right here in Vancouver some time soon!
