What: A Forbes contribution insisting on the renewed central position of stores in retailers business models.

Why it is important:  Nothing replaces stores when it comes to customer acquisition, retailer branding and cost-efficiency in omnichannel operations.

According to this Forbes contributor, physical retail is not dead, but its boring sister is. What he implies with this stance is that all self-proclaimed retail futurists who assertively say that we live in an era of “retail apocalypse” do not take into account the fact that many thousands of stores are still operating and thriving, even after the Covid-19-induced disruptions.

Large retailers increasingly see their stores as a critical asset to invest in, as a compelling brick and mortar presence combined with an improved digital offering is a competitive advantage. Stores play an important role in:

• Customer acquisition,
• Fulfilling orders placed via e-commerce channels (and help with their profitability)
• Allow phygital options, such as BOPIS and others.

For the author, this is the reason why retailers keep on opening stores, even newcomers such as DNVB or even Amazon. While he mentions that e-commerce is here to stay and that it is poised to grow inexorably, his point is that physical stores are not dead, on the contrary.

The stores strike back again