Over the past two weeks, I have sat in meetings and have heard executives discuss commerce unflattering. Retail is dead, and commerce is a zero-sum sector, and it left me dumbfounded.

As I have realized, commerce is a sector that has two parts that consumers use to interact with it. In-person (retail) and via technology (e-commerce) is not harmonious if you read the press.

Do consumers determine the commerce winner?

I am somewhat confused as in 1999, the dot.com boom made it clear that retail was dead, yet I can still visit a San Francisco store or in Cape Town. The emergence of companies such as Shopify, BigCommerce, PayPal provides a false narrative driven by investors. Everything is going online, and thus the retail sector is in decline?

No market globally has an e-commerce sector that has grown to become larger than 50% of total retail, yet I hear retail is dying? If you look across the globe, Alibaba and Amazon are opening stores for different purposes. China has the highest e-commerce penetration, yet Alibaba and JD.com have invested in leveraging stores to drive more convenience for its consumers. Digitizing offline retail enables more logistics opportunities and to optimize inefficient retail. Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market and is opening AmazonGo stores to access consumers from a similar economic demographic to Prime consumers.

Does shopping online take away from retailers? The consensus seems to be so, but if your retailer has a poor online experience or does not have a relevant business model, what?

In the beginning

I often tell customers that we have been bartering from the beginning of humanity. The value distribution was instant and was dependent on need and convenience.

My late father always used to tell the story of going to the store in the 50s. He knew the name of the store owner, and there were no other stores for miles. Fast forward 70 years, and we see retail eating itself due to over-investment in stores, no investment in online, etc.

Walmart wants what Amazon has, and Amazon wants what Walmart has.

Unknown

A business that executes both physical and online retail at scale does not exist, and thus everyone is looking for sales in other channels.

I had a call in May with a very experienced commerce executive, and I will never forget her words – it a great time for digital transformation.

Commerce businesses have to serve consumers where they are, and when they want to interact with your business. I have seen in 2020 that this is where the realities hit businesses. E-commerce is not a silver bullet for a struggling business. Nor is adding a marketplace is also not a solution.