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Retail's Resilience Defies E-Commerce Takeover Predictions

There’s a boom in retail real estate, with more demand than supply allows.

By Erik Sherman | December 30, 2024 at 06:39 AM

It was supposed to be over once the pandemic set in. Everyone was buying via e-commerce. Who needed retail stores? The future would be all touchless online buying and delivery with no need for retail locations.

The story sounded good for a while as the percentage of total sales and e-commerce represented jumped up from 11.9% of total sales at the start of 2020 to 16.4% by the second quarter. Then things changed. By the third quarter of 2020, the portion of total sales dropped to 14.8%. The proportion slid to 14.2% by the second quarter of 2022. The increase of e-commerce sales moved back roughly to the same rate it saw before the pandemic.

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