Back in the '80s, malls were a cultural icon of significance. You could go down to your local mall just a few stops away and you would have every shop you could ever ask for at your fingertips. Food courts would captivate any consumer wanting to shop for hours on end, going store to store, buying everything or anything you could imagine.
These were the places to be back in the day, and then the 2000s came along.
Malls today are a bit different than what they used to be. Fewer people are going. As the digital age slowly infects every consumer and their needs, the days of ole brick and mortar seem to be a thing of the past.
It's pretty easy to understand why. There are currently 336,000,000 estimated Americans in the world, of that population, 307,000,000 of them have internet access. That is a staggering 90% of Americans. To further the point, of the 8 billion people in the world, 5.3 billion have some form of access to the internet. The crazy thing is it only took 2 decades to reach those record-breaking numbers.
The internet is simply a reliable source of information and communication. With the power of infinite knowledge now in the palm of everyone's hands, it's really a no-brainer that retail stores are dying out. Why would you or I want to go to the mall a few blocks away, waste gas money or spend way too much money when we could just go online and find the exact thing we want in-store.
We wouldn't have to worry about running into typical issues such as low to no stock items in stores, not finding the right option like size or color, or having to wait to order a shipment (going to the store more than once.) Or the potential altercation between shop-goers or retail employees.
There recently has been an interesting spike in organized crime in retail stores and mall centers, more and more consumers are staying home to order due to safety concerns. We plan on writing another blog post about this in the future to give you more details about crime rates and how it can affect physical businesses.
Hands down, getting a digital storefront is key here, there are a lot of big-name brands that are jumping onto the digital bullet train too. Brands that are notorious for having a part in the mall era like Sears, Macy's, Kohls, and Old Navy, for example, have all reorganized their businesses and websites to prepare for a digital consumer.
In fact nearly all stores you can still visit physically also have an online store as an alternative. The conversion difference of the typical consumer is around 67% of them prefer online shopping over going to a store.
The statistics are there, malls are slowly closing down due to less business than before, and it only seems to get worse for them. We believe that in the future, there won't be any stores to visit. Everything we do will be connected via online and shipped from warehouse to door.
So why not be prepared early? Your business is in dire need of a 3PL service that can fulfill your package orders and is guaranteed to be delivered straight to your customer's door. The benefit of working with someone like Black Mountain, your packages will stay in a safe and clean environment that will be ready to ship to your customers at a rate everyone will be satisfied with.
Call us today to get a quote on the services you might require for your business.