How you shop today will influence your future choices

With the Christmas shopping season upon us, every retailer hopes this season will be better then the last. For many retailers, sales during the Christmas shopping season makes up nearly 50 percent of their annual income. With so many consumers shopping the day after Thanksgiving, economists feel that's the day most retailers make their profit for the year, consequently the term Black Friday began.

However as online sales have begun to grow, Black Friday is beginning to lose some of its magic. Many retailers have begun offering their deepest mark downs on big expensive products already in October, to entice consumers into their showrooms before online merchants offer their strong markdowns.

Why is this important? This year shoppers made 51 percent of their purchases online, compared with only 48 percent in 2015. These sales have given online giant Amazon 82.7 billion in sales, up 15.8 percent in the past twelve months. This compares to Wal-Mart's income of just 12.5 billion in the last year.

There can be little wonder why major brick and mortar retailers like Sears, JCPenney, Macys, Nordstroms, Kohls and Target are finding their profits spiraling downward. All too often as sales plunge, stores begin to close. Clark.com, a major news source for retail shopping, reports in 2017 JCPenney closed 138 stores, Macys 68, Payless Shoes nearly 900 and Sears Holdings 358, with an additional 63 in January of 2018.

Major retail stores are not the only ones suffering. Traditional mall retailers like The Limited closed 250 stores, The Gap 200, Abercrombie and Fitch 60 and Radio Shack 1,000.

Target Corp., which is closing 12 stores while opening 32 new sites, has attempted to reach online consumers with more merchandise and cheaper prices. However their brick and mortar store sales continue to plummet. Their stock dropped 22 percent in 2017 even though their online sales rose by 32 percent.

Nevertheless, Wal-Mart has appeared to be hurt less by the switch in consumer spending as their online sales rose by 60 percent between June and Sept. of 2017, helping to give them their 12th straight quarter of growth, according to U.S News.

Of course returning unwanted items purchased online can be a problem. According to the Chicago Tribune, 15-30 percent of all items purchased online are returned, and that number rises about 2 percent in December. Most consumers will attempt to return unwanted items to their local brick and mortar stores if they are available in their areas, instead of paying postage to return them. Interestingly, a UPS survey found nearly 70 percent of shoppers returning online purchases to a brick and mortar store are likely to make an extra purchase compared to 45 percent of return customers online.

According to a National Retail Federation 2015 report, only 8 percent of purchases from brick and mortar stores are returned annually. In many cases the reason is shoppers could try on clothing before making the purchase.

Now Amazon has begun moving into the grocery business with the purchase of the Whole Foods Company. Although this gives Amazon just 1 percent of the food industry, their online marketing experience gives them a major heads up over their competition.

According to Money and Career Cheat Sheet, Amazon is targeting traditional operations such as Kroger, Safeway and Aldi. After Amazon's announcement, both Kroger and SuperValu stocks dropped sharply. The one saving grace for traditional brick and mortar grocery outlets is that it will be nearly impossible for online grocery dealers to compete with the safe and efficient delivery of perishable fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat products.

Regrettably, the policies of many brick and mortar stores have been their own worst enemy. How many times have you been told to shop online by a clerk when you failed to find what you were looking for in their store? Each customer that goes online and is satisfied is one less that will take the time to drive to the mall to shop.

No doubt the retail face of America will change drastically over the next few years. How you shop today will influence your future choices.

This is the opinion of Gerry Feld, a lifelong Central Minnesota resident whose column is published the second Sunday of the month. He writes mostly about national issues from a conservative perspective.