“A powerful rejoinder to anyone who predicted the irrelevancy of the three most important factors in retail: location, location and location. It’s a must read for anyone who runs an Internet business.”

—BRAD STONE, author of The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

 

Location is Still Everything

Location Is (Still) Everything
The Surprising Influence of the Real World on How We Search, Shop, and Sell in the Virtual One

Conventional wisdom holds that the Internet makes the world flat and reduces friction by erasing the impact of the physical world on our buying habits.

But Wharton professor and marketing expert David R. Bell argues that the way we use the Internet is still largely shaped by the physical world that we inhabit. Anyone can go online and buy a pair of jeans—but the likelihood that we would do so depends to a significant degree on where we live. The presence of stores nearby, trendy and friendly neighbors, and local sales taxes, among other factors, play a critical role in our decision-making process when it comes to buying online. So too, our willingness to search for and consume information depends on where we live and who we live next to.

Bell offers a fascinating, in-depth look at online commerce and retailing through his years of research and investing and advising experience. His unique GRAVITY framework is a powerful and practical tool that explains how the real and virtual worlds connect and what Internet sellers must consider in order to succeed. At its core, Location Is (Still) Everything is a book about fundamental human behaviors and location-based conditions, and the role that they play in determining how the Internet is used in our daily lives. It will give entrepreneurs, managers, students, and investors the key to understanding how and why we use the Internet to search, shop and sell.

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“David Bell has written a playbook about how to win the internet. By illuminating the connections between our physical and virtu­al lives, he’s paved the way for smarter shopping, selling, sharing and living.”

—NEIL BLUMENTHAL and DAVE GILBOA, co-CEOs and co-founders of Warby Parker

“Thoroughly researched and elegantly written, this book offers a provocative insight—our online behavior depends a lot on where we live and this relationship is quite stable and predictable. Any­one interested in understanding online behavior of consumers would benefit tremendously from reading this book.”

—SUNIL GUPTA, the Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

“The Internet has had a powerful impact on business. But the real world and the virtual one are more connected than you might think. Location Is (Still) Everything shows you what’s new, what’s the same, and what you should be doing about it.”

—JONAH BERGER, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On