Raegan Hall started the Kelowna-based clothing store, Blonde, in 2004.

It's a stylish shop for women and many frequenters of Blonde have said it provides options they wouldn't find anywhere else in Kelowna.

If you were to pop onto the Blonde website, you'd notice a clean, sleek and stylish web design that's just begging customers to buy.

Photo Credit: Blonde

But Hall isn't ready to sell products online just yet.

She says the timing's not right.

In fact, she's had a pretty good summer as far as sales go.

Photo Credit: Blonde

While she isn't sure if that's purely just because of the boating restrictions on the lake this year, sales were up by 25%.

With a series of reasons why she doesn't want to go online, here's why Hall thinks it's going to be the inevitable move in order for her business to survive.

"I literally get an email or comment on my Instagram every single day asking me to sell online and I constantly give the bad news of 'No,'" said Hall.

"Definitely I'm losing a market for sure because in this day and age, people think that they can get anything online. They're being programmed to just have that accessibility."

She admits that when she started Blonde, she was inspired by her mom's business store in Calgary and wanted to create the same 'mom and pop' experience.

Photo Credit: Blonde

"So I'm really not going with that flow and it's making a lot of people scratch their heads but I'm just personally a mom and pop small shop operator and I'm modelling my own business from a store that my mom grew up with in Calgary."

"It was just her favourite place to go and it created a lot of promos for her. I'm doing the same thing. I like to be the spot that people come to visit when they're being a tourist and so that you know that I'm on their rotation – like they roll into downtown and they go to their favourite coffee shop, favourite book stores and favourite clothing store all in the same loop."

Hall is content with how sales are going in the summer during tourism season, but says she's going to have to change things up a bit to do well the rest of the eight months of the year.

"I would say I think that yes, I'll probably have to look into online sales at some point"

"For me to do an online I would have to probably hire two full time employees. I already have four full-time staff running my business and that would be an additional two just to be in correspondence with consumers, with packing, shipping, receiving, inventory control.

It's just kind of a whole other beast."

Many shoppers prefer the mom and pop shops to shopping online.

While there will always be paperback books for the voracious readers, it's no secret that everyone's a self-published author on Kindle now.

Large stores like Sears, Future Shop and more have spent the last few years 'restructuring.'

Like it or not, the numbers are showing a fast-growing trend of buyers preferring e-commerce to brick and mortar stores.

The only way for brick and mortar companies to stay afloat is to get online with a slick, mobile-friendly browser – and to do it ASAP.

In the last two years, Kelowna has seen several brick-and-mortar store closures, including  HMV, Payless shoes, BCBG, Target, Future Shop, and American Apparel.

And while the Sears in Kelowna is currently still open, the reports suggest many more will hit the chopping block soon, or 're-brand.'

All of these closures suggest that e-commerce is gaining ground in the world of retail shopping.

A 2017 report by an investment banking company, Credit Suisse, revealed that e-commerce is growing specifically in the world of retail apparel.

"Our analysis of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar growth suggests that the industry has reached a watershed moment, with e-commerce generating more than 50% of sales and profit growth for the overall apparel industry," stated Credit Suisse.

While this growth refers to the U.S. retail market, Canada is not far behind.

With online shopping grabbing more than half of the sales in retail apparel, the race is to the swift and the swift are the companies who can get their product to sell online and arrive at the buyers' door step in less than a week.

Credit Suisse projects that total industry sales for brick and mortar stores could fall to 62.5%, losing $19 billion in total sales volume.

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

So who's shopping online?  

Just about everyone shops online. 

Whether or not you find yourself shopping once a year or once a week, the internet has opened up Pandora's box to a world where any obscure item you could ever want, now arrives on your doorstep with the touch of a button.

After asking more than a dozen residents in Kelowna about their shopping habits, the majority said they shop online.

The items range from clothes to records, eye glasses, watch bands, books, cameras, cars and even dogs.

Another resident said he buys all of his music online to help support the artist, but also because he'd be hard-pressed to find the artists he likes in Kelowna stores. 

Lack of availability in stores as well as finding cheaper options were some of the reasons buyers took to the internet.

Free shipping was important to most buyers, most deliveries were happening in less than a week.  

The apparel retail market is stating that the amount of time it takes to design a product, create it, check the specs, and ship it, has sped up dramatically.

What used to take six to 12 months, is now being done in 13 to 20 weeks, depending if the product's shipped by air or water.

Products are getting into the hands of buyers 50-66% times faster than traditional supply chain models.

The diagram below shows the fast fashion model – from how long it takes to select the designs, check the specs, make the product, ship it and get into the customer's hands.

Photo Credit: Credit SuisseThe fast fashion supply chain model is getting products to the stores 50-66% faster than traditional supply models.

But if you're nervous about online shopping, you're not alone.

It's actually an acquired skill. There are some websites that are better than others and it can take time to navigate.

Some of you might prefer shopping in stores because it's a way to hang out with friends or it's your guarantee that the clothes will in fact, fit.

Not to worry – just like tablets haven't killed paperback books, there will always be a reserved place for unique brick-and-mortar stores.

But if you're a store owner, stock buyer or shopper looking for a deal, these are numbers that just can't be ignored.

For many shoppers, the online buying and shipping of gifts has opened up a whole new world of buying everything and anything.

Whether or not you're a regular web surfer looking for deals, or still have some trepidation about exchanging goods and services over the wide web, the numbers are telling a specific story of where this trend is going.

What's your preferred buying style?

Do you prefer shopping online or in stores?

Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!