Fending Off The ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Through Digital Transformation

Despite the fact that the economy is strong and American consumers are shopping in full force, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers across the United States are continuing their nosedives into bankruptcy. This so-called “retail apocalypse” began in 2016 when major retailers began shuttering their brick-and-mortar locations by the thousands. Sears has fewer than a third the number of retail stores it had ten years ago. Walmart just closed 63 Sam’s Club stores. Macy’s closed 68 stores last year and J.C. Penney closed more than 100. Payless filed for bankruptcy, and half of the malls in the U.S. are predicted to close by 2023. To date, 4,000 physical stores have been affected and another 6,800 will close in 2018—more closures than we’ve seen since the recession ten years ago. Why? Because Americans continue to do more and more shopping online. The figure has been creeping up every year, and now consumers do more than half of their shopping online. Read more at Forbes.