Some things won’t ever change. The change of summer to fall will likely always send tens of millions of American families scrambling to load up on school supplies of a variety of descriptions. But what will make the customer pick one location over another? That is becoming an increasingly complicated story – and one where customers’ self-determination is playing an increasingly large role. If customers can do for themselves at checkout and other points in the retail process, it often seems they’d prefer to do so. That drive to self-determine is powerful, and reaches beyond consumers. The exploding gig economy is a testament to workers’ desire to work for themselves. And the ongoing arguments between marketplaces and their members this summer are a reminder of just how grumpy merchants can get when they feel like their fortunes are determined by the rules and structures of their marketplaces.
Data:
