Brick & Mortar vs. Brick & Click vs. Click & Buy.

Today’s retail world is increasingly moving online in an effort to woo customers. Research and identify a
retailer from each of these three types: (1) brick & mortar: on-ground presence only, (2) brick & click: on-
ground and online presence, (3) click & buy: online presence only. Describe the structures of each of
these three firms in terms of the six key elements given in the chapter. If possible, draw a generalized
organizational chart for each type of retail organization based on your research.

Tips - Think out of the box... do different organizations that we are not used to hearing about.
Examples we all know about are Apple, Amazon, Google, etc.

Brick and Mortar are traditional types of businesses, which have a physical location where the customer
and the seller/management can interact to understand more about the goods/services. This business
requires investment for a physical location, labor for interaction with customers, stocking, etc. Even in
today’s technological advanced world, many people want to visit the store to physically see the goods
before purchasing. Some of the common brick and mortar stores are local grocery stores in the block,
restaurants, etc. One of the examples of brick and mortar is the Olive garden. Customers go to Olive
garden to go eat at the restaurant. The customer interacts with executives at the restaurant. There is a
shorter chain of command, narrow span of control, decentralized communication, low to medium
specialization, Informal formalization, and loose departmentalization. (Chen, Murphy, 2019)

CEO/ Owner of
the business

Site Manager

Finance/ Customer Logistics Specialized Skills

Accounting Care (Chef, etc.)

Brick & Click is a type of business model, which have a physical store as well as function as an online
business. This is the business where the customers interact with the executive’s in-person and have
customer service center through chat or call. Some of the business has the option to order the
goods/services online and can pick up through the physical location. Some of the known brick and click
businesses are Walmart, Best Buy, Macy’s, etc. Generally, they have a long chain of command, a wide
span of control, Centralized, Specialized, formalized and rigid departmentalized. Generally, the business
aims to reach out to wider customer service and function for customer convenience. (Twin, 2019)

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 CEO/ Owner of
the business

VP Quality VP Business VP Customer VP Operations

Service

Managers Managers Managers Managers

Team Leaders Team Leaders Team Leaders Team Leaders

Team Members Team Members Team Members Team Members

Click and Buy is a type of business where the customer and the seller interact on the online portal. They
communicate with each other through phone or chat. The seller does not have a physical store where the
customer can come and see the products. However, the seller needs to have distribution centers where
the gods are stored. The customer can return the products back to the customer through free product
returns, etc. One of the biggest click and buy a business is eCommerce businesses where the companies
sell the product online and ship products to the customer. One of the biggest click and buy a business is
eBay, where the seller can interact with the customer and sell their products. They have a smaller chain of
command, a wide span of control, decentralized, low specialized, formal structure and departmentalized
of doing business.

Reference:
Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T.A. (2018). Essentials of Organizational Behavior (14th Edition).

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 James Chen, Chris Murphy (2019), Retrieved from
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brickandmortar.asp
Alexandra Twin (2019), Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/click_and_mortar.asp

Hello,

Thank you for highlighting a different type of business and different key elements associated
with it. The Brick and Mortar business, which only works through the physical location. The
online shop like Walmart is a combination of Brick and Click where the customer can interact
with the customer online as well as through the physical location. This allows reaching a wider
customer base. This provides them the flexibility of doing business and satisfying the customer
needs. The customer can even return the goods purchased online at the store. This requires a
larger investment to do business.
Reference: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/brick-mortar-organizations-18377.html
Regards,
Pratik Khurana

Hello Neha,
Thank you for highlighting how the grocery stores and many other businesses are expanding on
an online portal to do their business. Online portals have become a convenient way of ordering
products and services. Still, there are some brick and mortar stores across the world such as a
local grocery store in Delaware that has only one physical location and no online presence to
interact with the customers. All the customers come to the physical location to inquire and
purchase the products from the store. It has become challenging the Brick and Mortar stores to
survive against brick and click stores such as Walmart, giant stores, etc. Brick and Mortar
requires lesser investment in general in comparison to brick and click business.

Regards,
Pratik

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