It’s the end of the retail world as we know it

Retail isn’t dying. Rather, a culling of the herd is underway, says Brittain Ladd, a former Amazon exec and supply chain consultant.

Ladd was speaking as it emerged that US retailers could announce between 20,000 and 25,000 closures this year, according to Coresight Research, with 55% to 60% of those situated in America’s malls. That would mark a record, which was previously the more than 9,300 locations in 2019.

Far too many contributors and analysts are writing articles that miss the point about the current retail environment, Ladd argued in a LinkedIn post.

The sector, he added, is cratering because mall-based retailers (think JC Penney) and specialty players are losing sales as consumers have lost interest in malls. Prior to the coronavirus, consumers migrated towards online shopping, and visited department and specialty stores on rare occasions.

“Many retail CEOs forgot to ask these questions: Why would anyone want to shop in our stores? Have we made it easy for customers to shop online? Consumers already avoided bad retailers, and now they're avoiding them even more,” Ladd commented.

“This is the brutal truth; most of the retailers that are going out of business and shutting stores were always going to go out of business because consumers found a better experience elsewhere. The coronavirus accelerated the process but it isn't the reason why so many retailers are going out of business,” he continued.

“Consumers determine who wins in retail and the results are in - consumers want a retail experience that many retailers can’t provide,” Ladd concluded.