Amitaabh Malhotra

The holiday season is the busiest time of year for retailers, when amidst all the festivities and cheer, consumers are spending big. In 2018, the National Retail Federation forecast consumers would spend an average of $1,007 on decorations, candy, gifts, and more. However, the end of the year is also a critical time for retailers because…

More than 12,000 retail stores are expected to close in 2018, up from around 9,000 in 2017, according to commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. While physical retail is absolutely undergoing a seismic transformation, it’s not necessarily the apocalypse that headlines have made it out to be. In fact, a slew of digital-first brands,…

Cryptocurrency may be the future of money, but it’s a tough sell in the retail world right now, and for good reason. The most familiar cryptocurrency unit, bitcoin, has been on a roller-coaster ride for the past few months, rising to a peak value near $20,000 in December 2017 before crashing below $6,000 in early…

Something interesting happened as we spent countless news cycles prophesizing the demise of brick-and-mortar retail: 2017 Black Friday foot traffic at stores remained very high and barely saw any change from last year. Meanwhile, online shopping saw another 17 percent increase from last year, with mobile shopping accounting for almost 40 percent of those online…

Millennials are a powerful demographic for retailers. Today, there are around 80 million millennials in the U.S., representing 25 percent of the population. Accenture estimates that millennial shoppers’ annual spending will reach $1.4 trillion by 2020. Within a few years, millennials will “truly come into their own” in terms of spending power, accounting for 30…

The rise of online retail has led to the decline of brick-and-mortar shopping, as consumers choose the convenience of clicking and buying from their home over going to the mall. While e-commerce growth shows no signs of slowing, physical retail must shift into high gear to adapt to the reality of technology taking over the…

We’ve all seen the headlines. Retailers across the board are shuttering stores or going out of business — Sears, Sports Authority, Kmart, Office Depot. The numbers are staggering. According to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, retailers have laid off approximately 44,000 workers in 2016 alone — all while Amazon.com boasts 31 percent year-over-year second quarter revenues. The discrepancy in retailer…