THE RETAIL EXTINCTION

We have all seen with surprise the closure of large retail chains and the gradual

transformation of shopping centers in recent years, some of which seem abandoned places.

Toys R Us (75 years old), Sears (126 years old), JC Penney (117 years old), Macy’s (176 years old) are some examples of permanent or staggered closures of thousands of stores throughout the country. But what was it that these big chains with sales of trillions of dollars did not understand or anticipate the market change. If you are in the retail business and have survived these changes, maybe you took the necessary measures on time or you are simply on the list of upcoming closures.

WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THE MARKET AND THE CONSUMER’S BEHAVIOR?

What makes these chains close and Amazon continues to surpass sales record. Sales at the close of 2018 USD 240 Billion.

In order to answer this question, we have to understand how the new generations have been turning into the critical buyer’s mass. More and more millennials and centennials will be leading the buyer’s market. To define what we should adjust we must understand how they see the shopping experience and how is their behavior.

For them, there are two clearly differentiated processes (shopping) referred to the process of research, comparison and determination prior to the actual purchase process. Millennials and Centennials make 85% of shopping online while Generation X, and Baby Boomers only reaches 22%.