Here is the hell of being in the retail or retail real estate business: Consumers are fickle. They embrace one shopping format, only to abandon it months later. They insist trips to market is one of their forms of socialization and entertainment, only to discover and embrace ecommerce emporiums offering everything from kitchen appliances and home electronics to apparel and groceries.
Any question about how warm this embrace has become was confirmed on Cyber Monday, when shoppers spent $10.8 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, a 15.1 percent rise over the previous season, and a single-day record for online shopping.
2020 has been a metamorphic year for retailing, as consumers, rattled by the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders, have moved toward online shopping in big-time numbers. Most of them will probably never go back to 100 percent traditional brick-and-mortar shopping.
One of the companies playing a leading role in driving the trend is Shopify,
