The Upside Of A Retail Apocalypse

We hear it everywhere: The retail apocalypse! Shopping is changing forever! Brick-and-mortar stores are dying! But isn’t it all a bit extreme? An apocalypse is a final destruction before the end of the world, so the popular phrase “retail apocalypse” would be the end of retail as we know it. It’s a ridiculous phrase, especially when stores closing isn’t something we should feel pessimistic about. Sure, we can’t go hang out in Wet Seal anymore, but no one was really doing that anyway, which is a large part of the reason the stores closed. Nearly 9,000 stores closed in 2017, but perhaps it’s all for the best. There’s a reason these stores are closing, and it’s because people don’t like shopping in malls or actual stores anymore. Instead of thinking of it as the end of the world, we should really be looking at this as the natural evolution of life and business. If stores can’t adapt to changing trends and technology, they will die of natural causes. The mall experience represents everything that is wrong with the modern customer experience—you walk into stores that don’t have what you are looking for or that aren’t relevant to you and see employees who aren’t engaged or excited to be there. Oftentimes, you walk out of the stores empty-handed, frustrated, and feeling like you just wasted your time. These mass experiences with mediocre customer service are exactly what we are trying to get away from! Read more at Forbes.