Are Consumers Still Interested In Shopping At A Store Instead Of Amazon?

Commercial real estate investors are nervous about retail—often because of the success of firms like Amazon; still, there’s new information that indicates the predicted ‘death’ of brick-and-mortar stores might be premature. And that has investors giving retail another look.

Industry experts with Chain Store Age note that consumers “still enjoy shopping in stores — if the shopping experience meets their expectations. And, not surprisingly, author Marianne Wilson notes that one of their biggest gripes is “long lines”.

Based on a study by retail payments firm Ayden:

when a “preferred” shopping experience is implemented — whether it be changing how someone checks out or how they interact with sales associates — 63% of people claim they will shop more.

And that includes fixing long lines:

…79% of survey respondents [claimed] to have left a store due to long lines. The average threshold for waiting in line is 10 minutes, according to the study, which found that 73% of sales are lost when a line is abandoned.

Advantages of ‘Brick and Mortar’ Over Amazon

The survey indicated there are clearly things that physical stores do better:

…60% of respondents ranked being able to see, touch, sample and try on items as the top reasons to shop in a store. And 33% said they enjoy shopping as a social activity and it is one of the top reasons they shop in a store.

An, even with goods purchased on-line, consumers like having a physical location “with 86% of respondents wanting to go to a store to manage exchanges or returns of items purchased digitally”.

So there are still plenty of opportunities for retailers with physical stores to grow their business and compete with on-line retailers.

View the full post here.

Looking to the Future

One of the most important things for investors to understand is the most likely future performance of the asset. That’s why keeping track of developments in the market is so critical. And that’s why you need to know which firms are adpating to the new realities or retail, and which are not.

The commercial real estate professionals at Pacwest stay on top of these and other developments that impact their clients’ investments, and changes to the retail landscape are not different. Call us today at (541) 912-6583 to get started!