Paths to purchase have changed significantly over the past decades, with customer journeys nearly unrecognizable compared to those of the early 2000s. With the internet at their fingertips, shoppers are more informed, connected to brands, and able to discover new products without leaving their browser. Still, the majority (70 percent) of shoppers choose to head into physical retail locations, and interest in in-store pickup has outpaced interest in home delivery, according to Sensormatic Solutions’ 2025 Back-to-School Consumer Sentiment survey.
This seems at odds with the storyline we’ve heard over the past decade, which tended to position the rise of online shopping as the end of traditional retail. This was a fair enough assumption given consumers’ growing prioritization of convenience, personalization and comfort. However, it reveals a misunderstanding of what motivates consumers and how they view the shopping experience.
Natural Edge
While industry leaders and economics experts were busy delineating between e-commerce and traditional retail, shoppers were focused on how changing purchasing models improved their lives. They do not see hard lines between “online” and “in-store” and are not wholly committed to either. Both are simply a way to do business with brands they trust — and on their terms. Under this paradigm, brick-and-mortar retailers have the edge. They can do both; online-only merchants cannot.
As a result, consumers see the convenience and instant gratification promised by online shopping as the domain of physical stores. How do we know? Shoppers’ preference for convenient, quick and simple journeys — both online and in-store — hasn’t relaxed. Lack of time to shop (33 percent) and long wait times/lines at the point of sale (25 percent) remain among the most cited challenges shoppers anticipated this back-to-school season. Similarly, low prices (76 percent), stocked shelves (65 percent) and safe stores (44 percent) continue to be the top factors that influence shopping decisions.
The only significant deviation from expectations is around the use of home delivery (38 percent) in relation to in-store (46 percent) and curbside pickup (32 percent) options. Back-to-school shoppers’ reasons for using both options are similarly revealing. Almost half (46 percent) of respondents note that they use in-store/curbside pickup to save time, and one-third (36 percent) cite same-day receipt of the product as a deciding factor. It’s great news for traditional retailers, and this increased interest presents a golden opportunity to capitalize on the momentum.
Good Gets Better
Each order is a chance to delight shoppers through frictionless journeys and maximize sales with add-ons and promotions. However, to maintain this edge, brick-and-mortar-first businesses will need to extend their insight throughout their supply chains.
Well-executed programs start with optimization behind the scenes, and extending inventory intelligence ecosystems to the source can help retailers start on this journey. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and sensors can be used in manufacturing facilities, warehouses and transportation networks to identify bottlenecks and address the root causes of total retail loss.
For retailers looking to push their investments even further, emerging artificial intelligence tools can help teams dive deeper into their data and add nuance that impacts understanding. These insights can help retailers keep shelves stocked, prices competitive, wait times short, and orders accurate. It also helps improve in-store support interactions, empowering associates with the information they need to help customers who already know what they want.
What’s Next
While online shopping has certainly changed how retail operates, those changes have been far from detrimental to brick-and-mortar businesses. Rather, they’ve guided retailers to a new, more precise and refined way of organizing their stores and operations — and customers are rewarding the efforts this back-to-school season. However, now is not the time to rest; it’s time to keep pushing operational improvements to new heights.
Grant Gustafson is head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, which powers safe, secure and seamless retail experiences.
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