WSJ: Holiday Shoppers Steered Clear of Stores, Favoring Online Buying
Article highlights:
Online sales grew 47.2% between Nov. 1 and Christmas Eve compared with the same period last year... Meanwhile, overall U.S. retail sales grew just 2.4%.
During the seven days leading up to Christmas Eve, store traffic fell 31.3% compared with last year.
This growth comes at some expense: selling online is generally less profitable than selling from stores.
Clothing was not a safe harbor: between Oct. 11 and Christmas Eve, sales of apparel fell 19.1%.
“The ones that are doing well this year started investing in e-commerce years ago—the Walmarts, the Targets—and they had the cash to address this,” said Sonia Lapinsky, a managing director in the retail practice at AlixPartners. “Now the others are just scrambling.”
Bridge has encouraged our industry for the last 10 years to heavily invest in e-commerce. Four years ago, I bought 40 copies of the 'The Four' by Scott Galloway and mailed them to decision makers in our industry. Much of what Mr. Galloway predicted came true, and those that read the book were more prepared to deal with the pandemic which accelerated e-commerce adoption.