Digital May Be Growing Faster, but Brick-and-Mortar Is Standing Strong

Digital May Be Growing Faster, but Brick-and-Mortar Is Standing Strong

Digital retailers get a lot of the holiday sales hype because they have been growing at a faster rate than traditional brick-and-mortar chains. Some of that attention is warranted because digital sales rose by 16.9% on Black Friday to an estimated $5.03 billion, according to data from Adobe's Digital Insights, which tracks 80% of online spending at America's 100 largest retail websites.

While that's good news for digital retailers, it's not a sign that physical retailers were all sitting empty on the day after Thanksgiving. In fact, traffic to brick-and-mortar stores only dropped 1.6% year-over-year on Thanksgiving and Black Friday combined, according to research from ShopperTrak, a Tyco brand. For just Black Friday, visits were down less than 1%.

"There has been a significant amount of debate surrounding the shifting importance of brick-and-mortar retail, and the fact that shopper visits remained intact on Black Friday illustrates that physical retail is still highly relevant and, when done right, profitable," said ShopperTrak Senior Director of Advisory Services Brian Field in a statement.

Continue reading

Source: Fool.com