Online Retail Sales Are Draining Shopping Center Sales. After 10 Years of E-Commerce Growth, Online Sales Have Now Reached Critical Mass ‘Flash Point’

Online sales draining shopping center revenues have long been of concern to shopping center managers and owners, but while overall mall sales were growing, no call to action appeared to be required, says Richard S. Cherry, Chairman and CEO of TheNowMall.com Network.

Cherry says, “Online sales have now reached critical mass, the ‘flash point’ for exponential growth and thus greatly threaten shopping center ongoing sales, profits and property values.”

Local stores are also suffering from fewer in-store sales although their head offices benefit from online purchases shipped from regional warehouses. For example, Macy’s announced their third quarter same-store sales are down 3.6%, although they were down 4.2% excluding online sales. Online sales, which include both macys.com and bloomingdales.com, were up 21%.

However, the usual 3 to 10 day delivery results in a costly average 30% return rate to these online retailers. This provides a strategic opportunity to shopping centers to recapture these mounting lost online revenues by offering convenient 30 to 45 minute order fulfillment (in-store shopping and delivery) to local consumers from stores in their malls, says Cherry.

“Seniors, disabled, busy families and offices benefit from having groceries, prescriptions, restaurant and fast food plus retail items assembled in-store by Network contractors, who pay for these purchases at the cashier before delivering them to the customer for reimbursement at-their-door, often with free delivery from participating stores, with service 7/24/365 usually within 30 to 45 minutes (7 to 10 minutes from the cashier)”, added Cherry.

U.S. government statistics in the chart below indicate online sales trend lines have recently drastically tilted. Cherry states he anticipates shopping center ‘revenue drain’ will continue to encroach profits based on growing Internet ease of use via efficient fulfillment and delivery systems by online retailers such as Amazon.com and Walmart.com, plus directly from most mall retail tenants’ e-commerce sites with off-premises warehouses, to which mall owners derive no revenues.   (NOTE: click image below to enlarge)

ABOUT: TheNowMall.com is a patented Local Online Search and Rapid Order Fulfillment Network which provides stores and shopping centers a method to extend their reach to neighborhood consumers when they cannot get out or have better things to do. Consumers can order online or by phone through the Network 7/24/365 for service usually within 30 to 45 minutes for groceries, pharmacy prescriptions, plus retail items, restaurant and fast food.

TheNowMall.com founders have over 30 years industry experience with major retailers and received a Smithsonian Award and President’s Award for innovative use of Internet technology resulting in employment for thousands of disabled people.