A company’s survival and growthint this day and age largely depends on its online presence. Like Macy’s and Walmart (and the non-retail company Verizon) other companies are also trying to establish themselves with its online presence. Billions of dollars have been poured into start-up business acquisitions and other e-commerce efforts. The pressure to keep up with online demands is on.
Macy’s is closing its 100 stores down
Why is Macy’s closing down its stores? The iconic American retailer has succumbed to the omnipresent threat and the rise of the e-Retailers. It has been reported that Macy’s is closing down its 100 stores nationwide. The competition between the traditional retailers and the e-Retail giants such as eBay and #Amazon (and discount store T.J. Maxx) has reached new heights. It’s not that people are spending less in the retail sector. It’s just that they’re not shopping like they used to. The Internet of Things has changed the whole shopping game: people are shopping online from the comfort of their homes. They’re reluctant to pay the full price anymore. The e-Retailers provide just what the new-age consumers want…sale.
Walmart has bought the ‘unicorn’ jet.com
In order to stay afloat in the digital market Walmart has reportedly bought the start-up online retailer jet.com for a whopping $3.3billion. The acquisition of these so called ‘unicorn’ start-ups is one of many carried out by the retail giants. The trend to buy start-up companies valued at $1billion is something that is taking the online retail sector by storm. Start-ups like jet.com provide companies like Walmart the hope to compete with its competitors (in the case it’s Walmart competing against the retail giant Amazon) and stay afloat in the retail game.
Other retailers have also succumbed to the big fallout. Verizon wants to keep up with the internet giants like Alphabet and Facebook. Verizon recently acquired Yahoo, which is ranked as the third most important online-advertisement platform, to meet the digital demands and gain revenue by advertising on the newly-acquired company’s digital platform. It has been reported that Yahoo! has a solid readership base of 1billion visitors per month.
Traditional vs Online shopping
The only time that people actually get excited at the prospect of ‘going out and shopping’ is during Christmas holidays. Even at this celebratory time the e-Retailers try to lure customers by providing ‘too good to be true’ online offers at a discounted rate. This business scheme adopted by the online businesses worldwide makes it difficult for the departmental stores to survive. For decades American consumers have relied on shopping malls and departmental stores for their daily needs. People would actually leave the comfort of their homes and go out shopping to the malls. It was a thing.
But the meteoric rise of the online retailers and discount stores has totally transformed the retail sector landscape. People’s lifestyle and shopping experience (and taste) is totally transformed. The semi-millennial and digital society today demands goods to be transported to them by a drone and now. It’s all about the speed. It’s all about convenience. The new-age don’t have spare time. The old-age shopping experience is long gone.
Online retail giants such as Amazon and eBay have totally taken over from the traditional departmental stores like Macy’s. It’s the case of ‘video killed the radio star’. Even the discounted stores like T.J. Maxx (or T.K. Maxx in the UK. I know so as I used to be an employee) is hurting well-established and traditional American retail companies such as Macy’s. The competition is tough. Discount stores have totally destroyed business for traditional and, in some rare cases, online retailers. This is the insider talk now. T.J. Maxx would sell high-end designer clothing and other luxury homeware products at a reasonably cheaper and affordable prices compared to Macy’s and/or some online stores. #News #Google
