SAN DIEGO—“We project that retail will change more in the next five years than it has in the last 50 to 100 years.” So says Matt Winn, global retail COO and head of retail for the Americas at Cushman & Wakefield.
Winn tells GlobeSt.com that “everyone—from the UPS guys to e-commerce retailers to those of us in the commercial real estate space—are adapting to the new world of omnichannel retailing.”
He explains that there is a retail revolution at the moment led largely by what he calls the “three M's:” mobility or mobile commerce, millennials, and metropolitan areas.
Winn notes that “The overwhelming use of smartphone and mobile devices signals great news for retailers—by some estimates, 40% of Americans wake up and check their phones first thing in the morning, and on average they spent 45 minutes to an hour on shopping sites.”
Millennials, he adds, are a huge driver of that trend, “and they're far more likely to use social media to shop and to share what they've bought with their friends. This leads to an omnichannel retail effect, or the blend between what's happening in stores and on the Internet.”
And thanks to urbanization, he adds, “those consumers have less space to store what they buy and don't have the resources to transport those goods home. This has forced retailers to more carefully consider locating brick-and-mortar stores close to transportation hubs.”
What does Winn know for sure? “The retail store is here to stay for some time. It's just evolving to meet the needs of a new group of global consumers buying in an onmichannel world.”
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Natalie Dolce
Natalie Dolce, editor-in-chief of GlobeSt.com and GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum, is responsible for working with editorial staff, freelancers and senior management to help plan the overarching vision that encompasses GlobeSt.com, including short-term and long-term goals for the website, how content integrates through the company’s other product lines and the overall quality of content. Previously she served as national executive editor and editor of the West Coast region for GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, and was responsible for coverage of news and information pertaining to that vital real estate region. Prior to moving out to the Southern California office, she was Northeast bureau chief, covering New York City for GlobeSt.com. Her background includes a stint at InStyle Magazine, and as managing editor with New York Press, an alternative weekly New York City paper. In her career, she has also covered a variety of beats for M magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, FashionLedge.com, and Co-Ed magazine. Dolce has also freelanced for a number of publications, including MSNBC.com and Museums New York magazine.
