Retailers Need Both Online And Physical Presence To Survive: Former Macy’s CEO

The trick to surviving the current retail disruption may not be as simple as moving your shop online, said former Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren. Instead, Lundgren said, retailers today need to have a presence in both worlds. “Neither one or the other is the way consumers shop today,” Lundgren said during a “Power Lunch” exclusive on Thursday. Lundgren was in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday for the annual Global Retailing Conference, where he said data revealed that in 2017, only 10 percent of sales across all categories, including food and retail, occurred online. “People are definitely choosing, nine times out of 10 transactions, to do it in a physical environment,” he said. “That’s going to go to 89 and 88 [percent]. But it’s not going to go to 50 [percent] overnight.” “We’re going to see most of retailers, all of retailers, having both,” Lundgren added. “You can do both, and you have to do both.” Read more at CNBC.