I) Retail reinvention is not a simple process, and it’s also not happening on what used to be called "Internet Time." Some internet-driven changes have happened quickly, of course. Craigslist quickly overtook newspaper classified ads and turned newspaper economics upside down. But many widely anticipated changes weren’t quick, and some haven’t really started. With the benefit of hindsight (后见之明), it looks like the interact will transform the economy at something like the pace of other great inventions like electricity. B2B commerce, for example, didn’t move mainly online by 2005 as many had predicted in 2000, nor even by 2016, but that doesn’t mean it won’t do so over the next few decades.
J) But the gale is still blowing. The sudden decline in foot traffic in recent years, even though it hasn’t been accompanied by a massive decline in physical sales, is a critical warning. People can shop more efficiently online and therefore don’t need to go to as many stores to find what they want. There’s a surplus of physical shopping space for the crowds, which is one reason why stores are downsizing and closing.
K) The rise of the mobile phone has recently added a new level of complexity to the process of retail reinvention. Even five years ago most people faced a choice. Sit at your computer, probably at home or at the office, search and browse, and buy. Or head out to the mall, or Main Street, look and shop, and buy. Now, just about everyone has a smartphone, connected to the internet almost everywhere almost all the time. Even when a retailer gets a customer to walk in the store, she can easily see if there’s a better deal online or at another store nearby.
L) So far, the main thing many large retailers have done in response to all this is to open online stores, so people will come to them directly rather than to Amazon and its smaller online rivals.Many are having the same problem that newspapers have. Even if they get online traffic, they struggle to make enough money online to compensate for what they are losing offline.
M) A few seem to be making this work.Among large traditional retailers, Walmart recently reported the best results, leading its stock price to surge, while Macy’s, Target, and Nordstrom’s dropped. Yet Walmart’s year-over-year online sales only grew 7 percent, leading its CEO to lament (哀叹), “Growth here is too slow.”Part of the problem is that almost two decades after Amazon filed the one.click patent, the online retail shopping and buying experience is filled with frictions.A recent study graded more than 600 internet retailers on how easy it was for consumers to shop, buy, and pay.Almost half of the sites didn’t get a passing grade and only 18 percent got an A or B.
N) The turmoil on the ground in physical retail is hard to square with the Census data. Unfortunately, part of the explanation is that the Census retail data are unreliable.Our deep 100k into those data and their preparation revealed serious problems.It seems likely that Census simply misclassifies a large chunk of online sales.It is certain that the Census procedures, which lump the online sales of major traditional retailers like Walmart with“non-store retailers"1ike food trucks.can mask major changes in individual retail categories.The bureau could easily present their data in more useful ways.but they have chosen not to.
O) Despite the turmoil, brick and mortar won’t disappear any time soon.The big questions are which, if any, of the large traditional retailers will still be on the scene in a decade or two because they have successfully reinvented themselves, which new players will operate busy stores on Main Streets and maybe even in shopping malls, and how the shopping and buying experience will have changed in each retail category.Investors shouldn’t write off brick and mortar.Whether they should bet on the traditional players who run those stores now is another matter
36.Although online retailing has existed for some twenty years, nearly half of the internet retailers still fail to receive satisfactory feedback from consumers, according to a recent survey.
37.Innovative retailers integrate internet technologies with conventional retailing to create new retail models.
38.Despite what the Census data suggest, the value of physical retail’s stocks has been dropping.
39.Innovative—driven changes in the retail industry didn’t take place as quickly as widely anticipated.
40. Statistics indicate that brick and mortar sales still made up the lion’s share of the retail business.
41. Companies that successfully combine online and offline business models may prove to be a big concern for traditional retailers.
42.Brick and mortar retailers’ faith in their business was strengthened when the dot com bubble burst.
43. Despite the tremendous challenges from online retailing, traditional retailing will be here to stay for quite some time.
44. With the rise of online commerce, physical retail stores are likely to suffer the same fate as i the yellow pages.
45. The wide use of smartphones has made it more complex for traditional retailers to reinvent their business.
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