The retail revolution

 

Napoleon once dismissed England as a nation of shop keepers, fast forward to today and he would observe we are a nation of online shoppers.

 

Accompanying the rise of online shopping retail chains do not need as many stores as they did in the past, a trend that is accelerating rapidly.

 

Customers are becoming ever savvier in looking for value for money, employment is tight and also we've seen a massive growth in the supermarkets in terms of non-food retail.

 

Now further adding to the problems of the “bricks and mortar retailers” is the rise of “showrooming.”

 

Essentially this is customers going into a shop to browse but in reality an exercise to check out goods and then search on line for a more competitive deal.

 

 

The growth of online shopping is a juggernaut now accounting for 15% of retail sales - and forecast to be at least 30% by 2020.

 

This Christmas day is forecast to set a record for online shopping. The industry association for online retailers estimate that, a record £636m will be spent on Christmas Day this year, a 36 per cent increase on 2013.

 

Those retailers who fail to exploit all areas of multi channel marketing whilst finding themselves saddled with the burgeoning costs of maintaining retail outlets will continue to be squeezed.