You may enter a supermarket twice in a day, but you remain a single shopper.
Retailers like Mahesh Shahani, the owner of the Gems World chain of shops, say it is common for 10 hours to go by without a single shopper in sight.
A single shopper might bring him $40,000 or $50,000 a year in sales, the same as what he might expect from a store that bought his line.
John Lewis, a British omnichannel role model, takes the view that targeting individual shoppers rather than single channels is the way to profitability.
Much of the merchandise — from thousands of manufacturers like Tory Burch and Joe's Jeans — is aimed squarely at the tastes of single female shoppers age 24 to 32. "This is a shopper who connects with shopping as a hobby, in a phase of life where she's taking care of herself more than taking care of lots of people around her," Mr. Han said.
In a single swipe, shoppers can transmit their credit card numbers and passwords, as well as information about where to ship the goods, saving the effort of typing in that data each time.
There's no Pod, singling out shoppers to criticise and insisting that what they choose to wear will make others want to Snog, Marry or Avoid them – almost everyone here shops in pairs or groups, giving each other questionable but, crucially, entertaining advice.
Unlike Black Friday, when many people are shopping for Christmas gifts for friends and family, Singles Day shoppers often buy practical items for themselves.
In the not-so-distant future, the service could single out specific shoppers, pointing customers who choose to be personally identified toward items they may be interested in.
