W EEKLY EDITION APRIL 25, 2018
Decline in Physical Retail Sales Provides Insight for Portable
Sanitation …continued
By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director
Customer behavior is changing. Whether portable sanitation operations have typically had customers walk in the front
door and buy things on site doesn't really matter. The Internet has taught people new ways to shop, and it is now much
more "normal" to shop online than to shop in perso n for a growing number of things. Consequently, when people need
your products and services, the first place they are going to look is the Internet. Statistica (2108) has polled online
shoppers, and learned they have a variety of reasons for preferring to buy online as shown in this chart.
Customers expect to be well informed. Today it seems almost quaint to use the process of "shopping around" as a
learning experience. Some of us remember a time when the only way to get information was to talk with seller s. If you
had an urgent need and little time, heaven help you. This meant you were at the mercy of the seller, and the seller had all
the cards.
Today that calculation has shifted in the favor of buyers. The Internet is a great equalizer, allowing custom ers to compare
products, prices, availability, and other variables that matter in the decision process. Even when people go to stores, they
often use their phones to look up reviews, competing products, and alternatives. Today's customers do not take kindl y to
feeling "in the dark" about these things and are more likely to be suspicious of information provided by a seller if they
can't corroborate it independently.
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