If you look up, do you see the retail sky falling, or is a brand new day about to dawn?
Headlines that echo forecasts of thousands of stores closing their doors over the next five years seem alarming on the surface, but perhaps it’s a sign of different things — maybe better or maybe not — to come.
CNBC and Yahoo Finance reported yesterday on a new client note issued by UBS that estimates 80,000 locations will be shuttered by the end of 2026. A worst case scenario, according to UBS analysts Michael Lasser and Jay Sole, would see 150,000 stores closing.
The UBS analysts based their 80,000 estimate on the expectation that 27 percent of all goods purchased at retail will be made online by the end of 2026. That’s up 18 percent of total retail today.
American consumers have been shifting a growing percentage of their purchases to online sites for years and the novel coronavirus pandemic further accelerated the trend… Retail Wire
