Will Electronic Commerce Kill Brick-and-Mortar Retail?
With a larger share of retail sales migrating to online channels, what fate awaits traditional physical retail centers? Supply and vacancy patterns for retail properties across the nation hint at a rocky future for retail landlords.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau over the last decade quantifies what shoppers have known for some time — a growing number of consumers are shopping on the Internet. Close to $165 billion of transactions occurred on the Internet in 2010, a 14.9% jump from 2009. Total retail sales grew by just 7% during the same period.
On average, total retail sales have grown by 2.9% year-over-year from 2001 to 2010. E-commerce sales eclipsed that by several orders of magnitude, clocking in at an average year-over-year growth rate of 20.2% during the same time period...
http://retailtrafficmag.com/news/electronic_commerce_kill_retail_03082011/
