Current challenges for the retail industry

General aspects

Your assignment is to write a manuscript for a speech on the future of retail at a seminar for students of retail marketing and management at the University of California, San Diego. As an assistant at the Modern Retail Association, you should assume the perspective of a retail expert. Consider also that you are addressing students who are looking for guidance about retail marketing and management.

Part of your assignment asks you to analyze the current challenges for the retail industry. To do so, you should draw inspiration from the five texts which are included in the exam assignment. In what follows, we will list some of the main challenges which are brought up in the materials.

Physical stores’ sales have dropped

One of the main challenges of the retail industry is in the brick and mortar segment (physical stores), according to all five texts. In recent years, physical stores’ sales have dropped, forcing them to downsize or to close their businesses.

For example, Text 1 mentions that “Even industry giants are closing hundreds of stores.” (l. 1-2). Text 2 further confirms this challenge mentioning that “Brick-and-mortar retail chains, (...) are trying to lift sagging sales” (ll. 1-2) after “a brutal year of bankruptcies” (l. 12).

Text 3 includes the same challenge, mentioning that ‘dozens of retailers have filed for bankruptcy’ (0:2...