Shopping 3.0: Shopping, the Internet or Both?

Retailers are in difficult times. The recession, global competition, government regulation and the growth of the Internet mean that costs are rising but margins are increasingly squeezed. Cor Molenaar's Shopping 3.0 offers an engaging, convincing and well-researched manifesto for the future of retailing; a manifesto which encourages retailers to switch their approach from a strategy that is based around transactions to one that is based around customers. Logic dictates that there is no one single strategy that will work for all retailers; some of them may indeed benefit from investing in e-retailing solutions and the Internet but for others, success will lie in developing a service based on customer experience or one with some apparently bespoke elements; a strategy to appeal to customers as individuals. Shopping 3.0 examines all these changes. It sketches the world of consumers; those who make their purchases from the comfort of their armchair and those who enjoy shopping with friends. Cor Molenaar explores the impact of changing consumer attitudes to shopping; the role of new technology in future retailing and the changing face of both city centre and out of town shops and malls. Shopping 3.0 offers a welcome helping hand for retailers, both physical and web-based shopkeepers; something to help you make sense of the ongoing revolution in shopping and to plan or adjust your business strategy to enable you not just to survive but to thrive in a world that will look very different in a few years time.

Professor Cor Molenaar is one of Holland's foremost business speakers and writers on the intersection of marketing and technology. He has been Professor in the department of Business Administration at the Rotterdam School of Management since 1999 and extended his fields to include e-Marketing and Distance Selling in 2007. Alongside his academic work, Cor Molenaar has been active as founder and director of consulting firm eXQuo, as commissioner of Fujitsu Services Holland, as Chairman of the Dutch RFID platform and of the Dutch foundation regulating security and warrantee systems for online retailers. Previously he has worked for companies including Ogilvy and Mather Dataconsult and Peppers and Rogers. He is author of a number of books in English and Dutch including e-Strategy (2000) and Interactive Marketing (1996). The Dutch edition of Shopping 3.0 sold 3,000 copies in the first three months of publication.