Reward Points from Shopping online vs. Commissions for the Retail Staff

For some people they like ordering as many products online out of convenience. That is fair enough. It can be hassle and take too much time to drive to a mall. For me I like looking at a product when it costs more than $100. If I am buying an $800 Tumi bag, I want to give it a look and ask questions.

I also like to earn reward points for travel. And, it is often the case that I will get 2-6 times the points for every dollar I spend if I buy by first going to my Chase credit cards shopping sites.

So, I end up with having to decide if it is OK to gain a benefit of getting a lot reward points rather than if I buy in the store in the mall.

So, I guess I am asking for Chase and the stores that work together to benefit from me using a credit card and buying products and giving the staff in the store income for answering questions. I think this is something that needs to be done. The help that the people in the shops are doing is driving sales and should get credit even if we end up buying online. Just give us an input box for a sales person’s name and employee number and give them some commission from that.

I think that this is a reality of the online economy. Retail has been hurting because we buy so much online. But, there still needs to be shops and staff to drive sales. The physical stores may be a cost, and maybe there will be fewer shops and the floor space will be smaller, but they are still needed.

And the staff in the shops should be used differently. They now are a real face for the product and can be the thing that builds a brand. The role can be shifted to one of being well paid and trained. So, it is a matter of shifting out of why there were shops/stores. Having them and staff in them is no longer to sell product (as a primary function). The staff in a shop and the shop is to build the brand and provide a way to make the products real, verse just something online where there are many of the same product type.

Perhaps this is an example of how we need to shift our thinking in a new economy.