IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Despite what some people might believe, e-commerce is not on the verge of putting traditional brick-and-mortar retail out of business.
That was the message delivered Thursday by David Egan, head of industrial research for CBRE Group in the United States and the primary speaker at NAIOP Inland Empire’s mid-year market review.
By no means did Egan downplay the importance of e-commerce to the U.S. economy during his remarks before a crowd of approximately 120 at the Ontario Convention Center. He predicted that e-commerce sales in the U.S. will reach $500 billion in 2018, and said that e-commerce is the driving force behind much of the industrial development being done in the United States today.
“But when you break down the numbers you see that e-commerce makes up about 10 percent of all retail sales,” Egan said. “Of course it’s important, and it’s going to get bigger, but this idea that it’s going to do away with regular retail has really been exaggerated.
“There are always going to be people who want to go out and shop.”
Egan’s comments were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Frank Mottek, anchor of Money News, the daily program on KNX-AM.
NAIOP is based in Virginia. It is one of the largest trade organizations in the United States for real estate developers,and owners as well as investors in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use properties, according to the organization’s website.
