But lately there has been another further shift in the landscape, where many online-only retailers have realised the limitations of a purely online fashion retail model.
It's a defunct retail model," he said.
Mr. Tanner's retail model is a little different.
First there was Amazon and its ubiquitous internet retail model.
Its retail model is built on rapid turnover, low inventory and razor-thin profit margins.
"This optimizes the best of both the direct model and the retail model," Micron's chief executive, Joel Kocher, said.
Bata, which operates in more than 60 countries, has developed a similar retail model in Colombia and Bolivia.
While there are precedents for what the Limelight Marketplace is doing, brokers say, it is an unusual retail model.
However, a backlash against the plans forced a major rethink, and a return to a more traditional retail model for software.
Now, the retailer is poised to use those stores against its online rival once again — this time aiming for the heart of Amazon's retail model.
The upmarket retail model was perfect for a chain of 50 or fewer stores, but "arrogance" – Waterstone's own word – overtook the founder, whose business expanded too quickly.
