Interactive shopping is just a high-tech extension of direct marketing, the familiar practice of selling to consumers through such media as catalogues and TV shopping channels instead of stores. Once wires carrying two-way TV signals reach most U.S. households, direct marketers will be able to deliver their pitches on demand, using a rich electronic palette of text, video, and sound. Consumers will gain the power to browse databases filled with everything from movies to videogames to product information, and will also be able to transmit their orders instantly. By promising customers more convenience and merchants greater efficiency, interactivity could revitalize the troubled retailing sector.
Predictor: Sherman, Stratford
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “The Information Revolution,” edited by Donald Altschiller, carries a reprint of the April, 1994, Fortune Magazine article “Will the Information Superhighway be the Death of Retailing” by Stratford Sherman. Sherman examines the mixed effects of the online revolution on the retail industry. He writes: ”Interactive shopping is just a high-tech extension of direct marketing, the familiar practice of selling to consumers through such media as catalogues and TV shopping channels instead of stores. Once wires carrying two-way TV signals reach most U.S. households, direct marketers will be able to deliver their pitches on demand, using a rich electronic palette of text, video, and sound. Consumers will gain the power to browse databases filled with everything from movies to videogames to product information, and will also be able to transmit their orders instantly. By promising customers more convenience and merchants greater efficiency, interactivity could revitalize the troubled retailing sector.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Shopping
Name of publication: The Information Revolution (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Will the Information Superhighway be the Death of Retailing?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 74, 75
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne