Is online shopping Killing the high street stores and fashion?
I t is exactly 20 years since someone first tapped their credit card details into a website and clicked alt147Buyalt148. Since that very first purchase of a Sting CD from US site Net Market online shopping has transformed the way we spend.
But the online shopping revolution has had a huge impact on our high streets. While internet giants like Amazon and Asos have become household names, 12% of our shops lie empty and a series of famous stores have gone. In contrast the biggest online retailer, Amazon, now sells 120 million products and has annual UK sales of £4.3billion. How do traditional businesses compete with that? They should follow the lead of the likes of John Lewis, who have boomed by keeping up with the shift towards online shopping. Around one in three purchases from the company are online that is a rise of 7% in the last two years. Online shopping need not be the death of the high street, what we are seeing is an evolution. Yet, certain things cannot be done online. People will always need nail bars or coffee shops, for example.