That vacancy rate pops up for strip malls, to 7.7%, but malls and power centers are right on par with the national vacancy rate. General retail properties actually posted the lowest vacancy at only 2.9% nationally. While the industrial market has taken substantial affected brick-and-mortar retailers, Rinkov says that the retail market in general—looking at consumer spending trends—is actually healthy. “I don't see that retail volumes on a gross basis are down,” he explains. “We have taken some dollars out of Main Street and we have put them online. In other words, we have taken the dollars that were going to malls and shopping centers and created an alternative way to shop. Ecommerce has made shopping more convenient and it may ultimately lead to more consumers.”

Millennials aren't buying everything online. The demographic, which has fueled a major disruption in the retail market, does see a benefit to shopping centers, according to Jeff Rinkov, CEO at Lee & Associates. He says that millennials may prefer buying items online, but millennials are still going to shopping centers in certain markets. In fact, there are some goods that millennials would prefer to buy in-store.

“There are some things that millennials will go to boutiques and malls for, and there is a whole list of other products that they have become comfortable and been trained to buy online,” Rinkov tells GlobeSt.com. “Online has become their acquisition point of choice.”

According to the Lee & Associates 2Q17 report, the market is actually relatively healthy, with a 4.8% vacancy rate and urban markets claiming the majority of net absorption. “Retail is in transition. Secondary retail markets are going to continue to struggle, while large markets with modern lifestyle centers will do well,” says Rinkov. “Owners in both markets will backfill vacant spaces in creative ways, and I think that shopping malls have a few things that people need: they have services and they have parking. They are also typically really well located. That is a solution that is going to continue to develop over a period of time. On a macro scale, large cities with macro centers are going to do well.”

That vacancy rate pops up for strip malls, to 7.7%, but malls and power centers are right on par with the national vacancy rate. General retail properties actually posted the lowest vacancy at only 2.9% nationally. While the industrial market has taken substantial affected brick-and-mortar retailers, Rinkov says that the retail market in general—looking at consumer spending trends—is actually healthy. “I don't see that retail volumes on a gross basis are down,” he explains. “We have taken some dollars out of Main Street and we have put them online. In other words, we have taken the dollars that were going to malls and shopping centers and created an alternative way to shop. Ecommerce has made shopping more convenient and it may ultimately lead to more consumers.”