EDITOR’S Page

Retail’s Bifurcated Revival

THERE IS A PAGE IN OUR MAPPING THE Changes to Retail guide that is very telling. It looks at retail categories that are struggling and why. But then about halfway down the page there is another data point to read about: why retail is gaining despite the record store closings. And make no mistake—stores still are closing despite the phenomenal changes underway in retail overall. Indeed, in a recent report UBS found that another 75,000 stores needed to close by 2026 to account for the inroads that e-commerce will make in physical retail. But as Marcus & Millichap wrote for this piece, “While closed stores may hurt some owners in the short term, longer-term effects of more efficient retail business models will be beneficial.” For example, Marcus & Millichap went on to note: when a retail opens a physical location within a market, web traffic in that area typically increases by 37%.