Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Comes Roaring Back--For Now
In its recently released Global Retail E-Commerce Forecast, 2024 To 2028, research giant Forrester reported that global retail e-commerce sales reached $4.4 trillion last year, up from $1.3 trillion in 2014. That means 20% of global retail sales now take place online. Forrester forecasts that by 2028, that total will rise to $6.8 trillion, reaching 24% of global retail sales.
But that doesn’t mean brick-and-mortar stores will vanish. In fact, Forrester says they’ll “continue to play a significant role,” more than many people think. Physical stores will claim $21.9 trillion of the $28.7 trillion (around 76%) in worldwide retail sales in 2028.
This may seem surprising because we’re constantly hearing about store closures and how e-commerce is going to take over retail. Counterintuitively, the COVID-19 pandemic had a positive effect, as consumers who couldn’t shop in-store for several years were excited to return to physical stores when cleared to do so.
As Coresight Research analyst Bryan Gildenberg told WWD, “For all the noise about?retail?apocalypses, store chains since the end of COVID are on a net opening front in the U.S.”
However, Forrester expects that this year, “online sales will regain momentum from shopping offers and generative AI initiatives.” WWD says, “This effort is already well underway, with a Nvidia survey in January revealing that 98% of retailers plan to invest in the tech over the next year and a half.”
Forrester believes part of the bounce back of global e-commerce sales will be driven by:
·????? New and mature sales channels, including “the rise of online marketplaces, social commerce, online grocery buying, click-and-collect services, quick commerce, livestream selling, and direct-to-consumer commerce.”
·????? More innovative payment solutions, like digital wallets and account-to-account (A2A) transfers.
While the report focuses on global sales, WWD says in the U.S., “e-commerce sales are expected to reach $1.6 trillion in four years, up from $1 trillion in 2023, accounting for 28% of all retail sales” in the country.
This compares to the 2024 retail sales forecast from the National Retail Federation (NRF), which says retail sales are predicted to increase between 2.5% and 3.5%, reaching between $5.23 trillion and $5.28 trillion. And online sales (which are included in the total) are forecast to rise between 7% and 9% to between $1.47 trillion and $1.50 trillion.
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Avionics Specialist / Inventor / Patent Holder / Entrepreneur
5 个月I agree! ?? I've even stopped shopping on Amazon & switched back to brick & mortar stores because of the safety & security concerns! Almost everything online, especially Amazon, is getting flooded with cheap hazardous Chinese imitations, knock-offs and alternatives! ?? And these Chinese alternative products are so poorly made that even their manufacturing processes are filled with impurities, contaminations & carcinogens! ?? I don't know if the Chinese are doing this on purpose as an attack on the American people or if the Chinese are just really poor manufacturers? ??♂? But the truth is, that I care about my health and well being enough to spend a little extra money to buy from well known, ethical and reputable brick & mortar stores because they spend the money to make sure that we're all getting good, safe & clean products for our daily use! I recommend Target, Whole Food's, Costco's, places like that! ?? Everyone else.. I can't trust their business ethics because of what they've showed in the past! ?? Even when I search online for specialty products for work, I always search for "USA Made" or "Made in the USA" products! These Chinese, inferior, products have become very good at seeming like they're "USA Made" products!