News

Lowest-price e-commerce hurts shopper loyalty

December 21, 2012

The rise of e-commerce and the hunt for the lowest prices is causing once-loyal shoppers to abandon allegiance to certain stores, according to an article on cnbc.com.

"There will be a lot less retailers on this planet in another decade than there is today," said Michael Rubin, chief executive of Kynetic, in the article. "Many retailers will go bankrupt. Amazon will capture more share. Online will capture more share. If you're selling third-party merchandise, you're in a battle to lose."

But while retailers suffer, mobile-based deal apps could prosper. The start-up Hukkster is a social media app that allows users to track the best prices for their favorite products, alerting them to any coupon codes or promotions, the article reported.

Some retailers already see the value of spreading deals through smartphones and are reaching out to Hukkster.

"Right now we actually search the [retailers'] sites. But we're really excited to partner with retailers in the new year," Hukkster co-founder Katie Finnegan Finnegan said. "They've started proactively reaching out to us because they find it as a way to actually get their interested parties' attention. Right now no one is opening their [deal] emails."

Read more about online retailing.