![]() People enjoy a “home base”; somewhere to walk in and feel connected. In retail, this is the brick and mortar shop. But there is no denying, the winds have changed. Sports Authority has recently liquidated all their merchandise and have sped up closing all of its 450 stores in the last few months. Best Buy was downsizing, big office-supply retailers were consolidating, and, earlier this year, even Walmart announced that it would close 154 of its U.S. stores. Brick and mortar stores are on the decline. Specialized stores and smaller Mom-and-Pop stores have also been taking the big hits. Mom and Pop business are built on trust and the loyalty of their customers. Unlike with chain establishments, customers who shop in small stores and boutiques are not just supporting a business; they’re supporting a person. This support for people and their endeavors is what keeps the companies working. But even as the retail market has been subject to many changes with the introduction of technology, the brick and mortar store will never go out of style... trust Blair Waldorf. Even Amazon, the biggest online retail location for everything from books to daily needs, is creating a trend for opening retail locations. As of August 2016, Amazon had 16 pop-up stores in the US. That number is expected to hit 30 this year and could go up to as many as 100 by next year, as new stores continue to pop up almost every week in malls around the country. Amazon’s bookstores around the world have also become a huge hit with consumers. The stores offer a new way for the company to boost its brand awareness and to increase revenue streams, both at the stores and on its website. On the other hand of moving online stores offline, many big stores never entered the online markets. Ross and Marshalls are among a handful of big stores that have avoided e-commerce in total. They believe that despite its over-hyped reputation, online shopping plays only a small fraction of retailing. E-commerce accounted for only 5.9 percent of overall retail sales in the third quarter, up from 4.7 percent a year earlier, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. As a store with a larger online presence, Nordstrom's direct sales business, which includes e-commerce, makes up nearly 20 percent of the company’s overall revenue. But for others, e-commerce remains insignificant. Target, for example, has said that online accounts for less than 2 percent of its overall sales. These insignificant numbers leave companies that are able to support themselves with storefronts not forced to move online along with the trend of the world. Until online retail makes big moves into markets such as drugs, cosmetics, food and beverage, there's a large amount of retail that e-tail basically hasn't touched yet at all. So our world will always hold physical stores, but with the changing of technology, it’s the size of these stores is harder to see.
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