Retail Apocalypse? Put The Blame Where It Belongs, Not On The Internet

Shopping center landlords, investors and brokers have been pushing against the narrative that e-commerce – and Amazon.com in particular – is behind the so-called “retail apocalypse.” Speakers at the International Councils of Shopping Center’s big trade show in Las Vegas last month provided ammunition for that argument. In a session discussing how store closings were contributing to a healing retail industry, Suzanne Mulvee, director of research for CoStar Group, contended that years of unbridled expansion, demographic changes and stagnant wage growth were the primary culprits for the retail industry’s woes. In another session that was half history lesson and half training on how to lease difficult spaces, Nick Egelanian, president of SiteWorks Retail Real Estate Services, pointed out that “electronic shopping & mail order” channels accounted for 9% of retail sales in 2017. But a break down of that figure revealed “pure play” e-commerce retailers contributed only 3.7% of those sales. And Amazon.com? It made up less than 1% of e-commerce sales. Read more at Forbes.