Retail franchises like Batteries Plus Bulbs, #136 within the Franchise Times List of Top 200 Franchises, have successfully adopted to the "Amazon Effect" and online shopping in general through their omni channel efforts and value proposition of immediate service. "Most people, when they have an energy outage, don't want to wair 48 hours to replace that battery," says Batteries Plus Bulbs CEO Russ Reynolds.

Service is also an important component for retailers like Batteries Plus Bulbs, especially since people that are unfamiliar with electronics often need products installed for them. Alongside the installation knowledge of their employees, the company introduced cell phone repair, now one of its fastest-growing subsets, in the second half of 2014.

"You're not going to call Amazon to fix a cracked screen, or install a battery for you. That's just not what they're going to do," Reynolds said. Read More opens in new window