RETAIL OUTLOOK: Tech-Driven Interruption of Shopper Habits Will Continue in 2015

RETAIL OUTLOOK: Tech-Driven Interruption of Shopper Habits Will Continue in 2015

Retailers Can Thrive Simultaneously in Online and Brick & Mortar Worlds, They Just Need To Adjust

By Mark Heschmeyer

December 30, 2014

The number of store closures tapered off dramatically in 2014 as the economy moved forward leaving the recessionary days of 2010 and 2011 far behind. However, the commercial real estate retail market going into 2015 still finds itself in the throes of a major transformation. The current challenge has a lot more to do with technology and a lot less to do with sales and spending. Still, the results could be just as dramatic on the retail marketplace.

"Every few years the retail sector experiences a spurt of store closures that temporarily spooks the CMBS market. What I focus on more now is how technology is changing the retail landscape,” Marshall Glick, senior vice president and senior analyst of Securitized Asset Management Group at AllianceBernstein LP, said at a CMBS and CRE roundtable this month hosted by Standard & Poor’s. Read more…