Brick and Morter

Brick and mortar business

The term brick and mortar business (bricks and mortar business or B&M business) is often used to refer to a company that possesses a building or store for operations.[1] The name is a metonym derived from the traditional building materials associated with physical buildings — bricks and mortar. Its first use was in 1992.[2]

More specifically, in the jargon of e-commerce businesses, brick and mortar businesses are companies that have a physical presence and offer face-to-face customer experiences. This term is usually used to contrast with a transitory business or an internet-only presence, such as an online shop, which have no physical presence for shoppers to visit and buy from directly, though such online businesses normally have non-public physical facilities from which they either run business operations, and/or warehousing for mass physical product storage and distribution.[3] Concerns such as foot traffic, storefront visibility, and appealing interior design apply mainly to brick and mortar businesses rather than online ones.

The term is also a retronym in that most stores had a physical presence before the advent of the Internet. However, the term is also applicable when contrasting businesses with physical presence and those that operated strictly in an order-by-mail capacity pre-Internet. Some stores, such as Best Buy, Walmart and Target, are primarily known as brick and mortar businesses but also have online shopping sites.

What are the advantages of click-and-mortar companies such as Wal-Mart over pure-play e-tailers such as Amazon

A “brick and mortar business” is a term used mainly on the Internet to differentiate between companies that are based solely online, and those that have a real-world counterpart. Such a business has a commercial address “made of brick and mortar” where customers can transact face-to-face. The company might also have an online presence.

Of the many different business models such as...