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View all search resultsWill the COVID-19 pandemic accelerate RI’s ‘retail apocalypse’?
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ith most retailers shifting their focus from brick-and-mortar outlets to e-commerce, brands shutting down physical outlets and shopping malls struggling to hold tenants, a phenomenon called “retail apocalypse” has begun across various parts of Asia.
In Asia, the phenomenon is most visible in China, dubbed as the “Leader of the Great Retail Apocalypse in 2017.” This trend is especially painful among luxury brands: Since January 2018, top-tier brands, including Hermès and Louis Vuitton have closed 62 stores in Greater China up to October 2018.
But again, one story’s end seeds another to begin: “E-commerce has taken off with greater speed in China than almost anywhere else on Earth,” according to a South China Morning Post story.
These brands are simply shifting to e-commerce platforms. The story specifically credits Alibaba (the media outlet’s owner) for rapidly transforming China’s retail landscape into a mainly digital one.
As a result, China has transformed the majority of its brick-and-mortar retailers into places where people can hang out and socialize with other people, such as restaurants or cafés.
Then, what about Indonesia? Indonesia’s also in a retail apocalypse onset, albeit more slowly, according to Nailul Huda, an economist with the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance’s (INDEF) Center of Innovation and the Digital Economy.
“Many Indonesians still combine their shopping and recreation activities, so many of us still enjoy going to the shopping mall, enjoying our leisure time while buying things from its physical stores,” he wrote to The Jakarta Post in a WhatsApp message on Nov. 25.
