Made with Bricks and Mortar.

It’s THAT time of year again, isn’t it? A time for giving, a time for sharing, and a time for seeing your nearest and dearest... Oh no, that’s right, it’s a time for shopping, shopping, and more shopping! And that’s something that doesn’t exactly fill me with any comfort OR joy to be honest. But to make things a little easier on myself, I’m afraid I’m guilty of doing the majority of my Xmas shopping online, as I’m sure a lot of people are nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, I still try to spread my spend around as many different businesses as possible and use the smaller online stores too. I don’t just order everything from a certain huge site in one large order, so please don’t judge me!

But, as convenient as online shopping is, it still has its down sides of course. The delivery fee for one – if you’re ordering one item from multiple sites and each one has its own delivery fee, it soon adds up and the delivery alone can become very expensive indeed. But the main draw back that I find, is that you don’t get to ‘inspect’ the product properly. You can’t use it, you can’t touch it, you can’t try it on. You just have to trust the reviews and hope for the best. And if it turns out to be no good, you then have the hassle of sending it back and waiting for a refund.

So, as far as I’m concerned, the perfect balance is having both an online presence and a physical ‘bricks and mortar’ outlet as well. That way, you get the best of both worlds – the online convenience when you need it, supported by the welcoming bright lights of the store when you need to make the most of the benefits that provides.

And it appears others think so as well. MADE.com has recently made a return to the High Street. After NEXT acquired the brand in 2022 and re-launched the website in August this year, they have now opened a 4,000sq ft store in Sheffield. Customers can place orders in-store and choose from next-day home delivery as well as click-and-collect options.

Having this bricks and Mortar support makes total sense to me, especially when talking about a product such as furniture – so much depends on how it feels, how it looks and the comfort of the piece. So NEXT are making the right moves with MADE and hopefully they will continue to extend the physical stores across the country.

If you are in the Retail sector you might be interested in our latest Talking Local podcast. Have a listen and let us know what you think?

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