It’s no surprise that consumers have been continuing to increase their expectations in terms of how they receive their products. Thinking back ten years, the technology was not nearly as advanced as it is today which has enabled such efficient delivery times and prices.

Companies such as Amazon, and their very successful, Amazon Prime, have directly correlated to the rise in expectations for consumers. With consumers quickly becoming so accustomed to this new trend of ordering everything online and receiving it quickly, other companies will have to evolve as well or they will get left behind.

Walmart has recently decided to close twelve of their sixty-three Sam’s Club stores around the country and turn them into “ecommerce fulfillment centers”. The first fulfillment center will be in Memphis, Tennessee. Walmart says that they are placing their fulfillment centers in places that will help implement their new strategy.

The company has decided to take action into changing their strategy in order to better serve their customers who are looking to purchase more of their items online. In addition, another goal is to be able to improve the speed of delivery time for online orders. With more and more customers searching for online availability, there is a lack of demand for products to sit on the shelves, rather they will now be getting prepared to be shipped to the customer more efficiently.

Now thinking ten years down the road, how many stores will remain open and how many of those stores will have transitioned to the online sector?

As a business, if you are debating on whether to transition your company to a primarily online segment you need to be sure that you do your research to ensure that your demographic prefers online shopping. For instance, the ecommerce trend of 2018 shows that 67% of Millennials and 56% of Gen Xers prefer to shop online rather than in-store.

As consumers, the power truly is in our hands to determine what companies decide to do. Our habits can persuade companies into making the decision of staying in-store or transitioning to online selling.

To read more on how Walmart is attempting to increase online sales, read here.