Like many of you who read this column, I deal with a lot of blurred lines in my company. Within the confines of our company we handle valuation services, brokerage services, software development, and we deliver these services over various platforms. In the most positive way, all of these lines of business complement one another. In the not so positive, it's critical to bring clarity and focus with the various lines of business and their relative needs. I was reminded of this last week while attending an ICSC - International Council of Shopping Centers conference.

It's no secret that over the years brick-and-mortar retailers have faced big challenges from online sales. I know it'll make me sound old when I say, those discussions occurred more than 15 years ago at one of the first ICSC conferences I ever attended. I think I've learned a lot over the years about the blurred lines within my business and I feel that in our industry of commercial real estate you are going to see more and more blurred lines between an online world and a bricks-and-mortar world and it's not just happening in retail. It's happening in office-based medical space and industrial markets.

But the most visible place is retail, so I'll focus on that.  It's vital for retail's survival that people look at the opportunity of utilizing individual retail stores as fulfillment centers, blurring the lines between online and in-store rather than to continually wringing their hands about it. Here's some stats for you - 90% of companies now offer next day shipping which typically costs four times the amount of standard shipping, which in many cases is free. Only 55% of retailers today allow customers to buy online and pick up in the store. Another 85% let shoppers check in-store availability however; most retailers lack the sophisticated inventory tracking software they need to have any hope for same-day pickup. All this means is that most people still do not see online shopping as a viable option when time is of the essence...and in our lives that's probably 90% of the time.

Clearly most of us know that Amazon is the giant partly because they were born as on-line and for years they have been able to focus only on fine-tuning its distribution, so they do it better than anyone else. But based on what I saw and heard at the ICSC conference, I definitely believe that the lines are blurring and there's great value in local shopping centers and retailers figuring out how to get their purchases - "one payment, one click, next day".

The same delivery issues happen for those of us in the services industry.  We are being asked to deliver our services much faster than ever before. Therefore, just like Amazon, we need well-defined systems/workflow and the software to support us. There's great opportunity particularly, for small firms, to give their customers high levels of service and compete on a much more level playing field than ever. And that same opportunity requires everyone to be open to change - blurring the lines, and be willing to work in a competitive market that insists on really good information delivered really fast.
 
So I hope that the lines are blurring in your world - it's a sign that you're going in the right direction. I hope that you and your firms' are doing a much better job of looking at how quickly you deliver the best product possible in the shortest period of time, because it's a rapidly changing environment for those of us in the service business and the competition is as fierce as ever. I hope that you are in a situation where you accept that and embrace the opportunity. And finally, I hope you pass this newsletter to someone you know who needs to know you "get it" and are doing the right things.

Come join our discussion on our blog, or I welcome your feedback through email.