Dateline April 18, 2018. Today’s headlines are not necessarily surprising but rather confirmation of what we already knew.
Dateline April 18, 2018. Today’s headlines are not necessarily surprising but rather confirmation of what we already knew. Toys R Us, Sam’s Club, Sears and Bon-Ton top this month’s list of retailers that are significantly downsizing their operations or shuttering their businesses altogether. Bon-Ton, operating 200 stores and 24 million square feet of space, was forced into liquidation when a plan to restructure fell through.
In 2017, 105 million square feet of retail space closed. We’re only into the second quarter of 2018 and already 90 million square feet have closed. With 8 months remaining in the year, commercial real estate services firm CoStar Group (they’ve tracked retail square footage since 2008) forecasts that more closures in 2018 will far surpass last year’s number.
Forrester Data: Online Retail Forecast 2017 projects 17.0% of all retail sales will be online by 2023. So much for the shopper who insists she needs to see, touch and try on an outfit before buying it.
Amazon is the No. 1 Internet Retailer of the Top 500 for 2017.
What this means small retailers is that they must get online. Websites are not optional. They are as necessary as electricity to a retail operation. Moreover, small retailers must promote their products on social media and marketplaces like (and including) Amazon.
Contact Unleaded Group for details on how to improve your existing website or start fresh with a website that will work for you in the new all-internet-all-the-time world.