Dive Brief:
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E-commerce sales in 30 retail categories will reach $294 billion in 2014 alone and $414 billion by 2018, according to Forrester Research’s online retail forecast.
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Mobile will drive $87 billion of e-commerce sales this year, according to the report.
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Despite so many retail categories moving to the web, especially electronics and media products like music, Forrester expects an increase of $300 billion in brick-and-mortar stores by 2018, the report said.
Dive Insight:
While there is no doubt that e-commerce is growing, several myths about the end of physical stores must be dispelled, writes Forrester Research VP and Principal Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru in Forbes.
“Dying retailers” Sears, Office Max, RadioShack, among others, will leave room for others to grow, Mulpuru says. And while there will be some shopping areas that will be closed, not all are created equal. Several malls are seeing quite healthy traffic, even at stores like J.C. Penney that are not doing well, she writes. The idea that stores are dying? “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Mulpuru says.