Akademik

n.

A business strategy in which a company combines online ecommerce ("clicks") with traditional retail outlets ("bricks").

Marla Malcolm has a beautiful new business. She's about to launch bluemercury inc., a Web site that will sell lotions, soaps, cosmetics and other beauty supplies. . . .She has [also] bought two real-world beauty stores.

'I do believe a lot in the clicks and bricks strategy,' says Malcolm, chief executive of bluemercury. 'In order to translate the right shopping environment, you have to see customers in the physical world.' "

— Shannon Henry, "Hoping Her Idea Clicks," The Washington Post, November 4, 1999