Retail Customer Experience: Brick and mortar retail getting a second chance

From Retail Customer Experience:

There's a very bright spot along the retail horizon and its location will be a surprise to many. The secondary market.

The intensity of that bright spot and the warmth it's providing manufacturers contending with the chill of sluggish sales was illuminated by Dr. Zac Rogers, professor of operations and supply chain, Colorado State University at the 2017 Inmar Analytics Forum in Winston-Salem, NC.  Findings from Dr. Rogers' research for his presentation, "The Growth of the Secondary Market: The New Realities of Non-Traditional Retail," are summarized below.

A decade of growth

While the closing rate for U.S. malls has tripled in the last couple of years, and 25 percent of the remaining malls are in danger of closing within the next seven to eight years, the secondary market — including dollar stores, value retailers, and manufacturer outlets — has grown at a phenomenal rate. The size of the secondary market increased 79 percent in the last eight years, growing eight percent to nine percent annually from a total value $309 billion in 2008 to $554 billion in 2016.

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