THE RISE OF THE PHOENIX
HUGO FONSECA
Manager, Business Development & Client Care Manager Sonae Sierra
It’s the Retail Apocalypse!
We continuously heard such predictions during the last few months, more frequently than ever before, and the pandemic lifestyle made us believe in it.The retail apocalypseis not a recent event! It is known as the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains worldwide, starting around 2010 and continuing onward.Numerous big mallsshopping centers and leisure parkshave been involved in this phenomenon worldwide, for a long time at a slower pace than announced. The recent acceleration has been evident with more physical stores closing due to factors including over-expansion of malls, rising rents, bankruptcies, lowerprofits, higher competition,and changes in spending habits. In countries with higher retail density and retail diversity this phenomenon was very relevant.Still,this phenomenon took time, several years, and it has been perceivedas a normal efficient market correction.It was justasurvival of the fittest and adeath of the weakest.
It is a fact that during these years consumers have shifted their purchasing habits due to various factors, including experience-spending versus material goods and homes, casual fashion in relaxed dress codes, as well as the rise of e-commerce, mostly in the form of competition from juggernaut companies such as Amazonor E-bayinternationally,or Yandex and Alibaba in Russia.
Nothing is better to capture your attention than a punching sentence so utterly misused in most recent times.
Somewhere along mid-last year the end of Physical Retail, shopping centers, outlets, and even retail chains was frequently predicted. Business experts repeatedly said it was the end of physical retail, and turbulent times were ahead for the industry. Those who prophesized the death of retail were not necessarily Retail experts, but rather respectable Business experts with a credible voice, normally based on trustworthy data, and verisimilar anticipation of facts.