What’s in store for retail? Maybe not much at all …
There have been quite a few news reports about store closings since the beginning of this year — many of them focused on big brands like Kmart, JCPenney and Abercrombie & Fitch.
But what about the retail industry as a whole?
Recently, GetApp conducted research among a more general group of U.S. retailers that run online retail operations as well as a physical stores.
Among this group of respondents, two out of three believe that they could be closing their physical stores within the coming decade and operating their business solely online:
- Extremely likely to be running my business solely online by 2027: ~23%
- Likely: ~43%
- Not sure: ~17%
- Unlikely: ~12%
- Extremely unlikely: ~4%
If these figures turn out to be even somewhat accurate, the “retail apocalypse” some news organizations are talking about will have become even more of a reality than even the most hyperventilating journalists are predicting.
It certainly lends additional credibility to current narrative about the downward slide of shopping malls across the United States …
Nones Notes 