As Online Sales Strengthen, Brick-And-Mortar Retail Must Rethink How To Survive

According to Bespoke Investment Group, sales of online retailers narrowly beat general merchandise brick-and-mortar stores sales in February (this includes department stores, supercenters, and warehouse stores). Bespoke points out that retail sales have changed tremendously since 1992. Non-store purchases have risen while general merchandise sales have fallen. In February, U.S. retail sales declined 0.2%, which would seem to signal an economic slowdown. However, online retailers (non-stores in Census parlance) grew 0.9% from January and 10% from February 2018. They call it a retail apocalypse. While using February is a questionable measure, since it is a very small transaction month, Bespoke points to a trend that cannot be ignored. Read more at Forbes.