E-commerce is one of the fastest growing industries.

One of the greatest benefit of the internet has been the provision of eased communication. Merchants across the world began to utilize this factor to convey the holdings of their inventory to anyone on the web. However, with the development of online payment gateways, merchants began to not just convery their inventory online, but also sell the items through digital stores; this lead to the development of e-commerce.

In this age of Amazon and GrubHub, convenience is king. E-commerce is surging due to the convenience it offers; people can search for and buy any item they are interested in from the comfort of their home. Due to the great deal of convenience e-commerce merchants offer, many brick and mortar businesses have been forced to adapt. While a large portion of businesses that failed to adapt to the internet era have faced troubling times, businesses in some industries have remained relatively immune to this evolution of consumer behavior.

In-Store Purchases do Prevail

Plenty of uncertainties are attached with an online purchase as it's not possible to fully grasp a product's quality without having physical access to the product.

A large portion of high-ticket items, like electronics, have sustained purchasing trends within brick and mortar stores. Research has shown that when people spend a large sum of money on a single product, they want the product to tick-off as many of their specific expectations as possible. This necessitates physical exposure with a product.

Electronics aren't the exception. Several product markets have developed a customer base that makes purchases at both digital and physical stores. For example, while e-commerce has flourished in the clothing market, a portion of people still prefer to try on the clothes to test the fitting. The problem, however, is that the internet will always outperform a physical store in terms of ability to provide access to a larger product menu.

Currently, there is a boundary between physical stores and digital stores. This creates an inefficiency in what can be achieved with the internet's power of conveying information. People have the ability to use the internet to search for a product they like, but if they want to try it at a physical store, there isn't a facility to locate the product at a physical location. A new application is taking the opportunity to fill this massive gap between the digital and physical world.

Find Your Product

Raincheck is a multifunction application and one of its most impressive features is the ability to connect digital and physical product searches.

Raincheck elevates the concept of a wishlist. It exists as a smartphone application and a browser plug-in and allows users to record products they like but would like to physically try before purchasing. This recorded product is then systematically tracked within the inventories of stores that are near a person's location. Whenever the recorded product becomes available within a nearby store, the user is notified.

While the ability to connect digital and physical product searches is Raincheck's most impressive functionality, it incorporates other important features.

Raincheck allows users to seamlessly apply discounts they discovered online on to a purchase at a physical location.
Raincheck aggregates users’ rewards and loyalty points, thus making it possible to redeem these points more quickly and towards products they have a higher preference for.

Raincheck adds a new layer of seamlessness to product purchases. It completes the milestone of connecting the digital and physical worlds in terms of product search, and it does so without forcing consumers to forfeit any deals they find online. This allows consumers to buy products with complete satisfaction, after having the opportunity to try then at a physical location.