The Death Of Brick & Mortar Retail, The Acceleration Of Online Retail

This isn’t a new trend, just one that has been accelerating and Amazon is a big reason why.  Brick and mortar retail began dying years ago as bookstores and video stores went under. With Amazon offering a wider array of products, extremely competitive pricing, and free next day shipping on many items, the squeeze is on for all brick and mortar retail.   One of the most high profile bankruptcies recently was in Radio Shack which has actually declared bankruptcy twice now.  Best Buy is still hanging in there, but revenues have stagnated for a few years now.  Clothing stores are declaring bankruptcies left and right and former mall anchor stores Sears and Macy’s continue to shutter the doors in many cities.  You have to wonder if malls will even exist in 5-10 years.  As high speed internet proliferates across the globe and more people get comfortable purchasing online, internet retailers will increasingly see the benefit of this shift.  Companies like Walmart see the writing on the wall and are buying up online retailers such as Jet.com as fast as they can.  The  top internet retailers with the best reputation will of course continue to reap the benefits of this trend, but don’t forget the companies that deliver all those packages (UPS and FedEx) and process all those payments (Visa, Amex, Mastercard, Paypal, Square, Apple).   In my mind the most interesting investment opportunities are in mobile payment processing so Paypal, Square, Vantiv and even Apple.  However, stock market investments are getting increasingly risky right now.

ZeroHedge has a good article on all this.