Has Coronavirus Brought Brick-And-Mortar Retail To An End?

As the world moves online, brick-and-mortar retail is struggling to keep up. After a pandemic and international lockdown, is this really it for physical stores?

Is brick-and-mortar retail really dead?

The short answer from our business school experts is no.

In some capacity, people are always going to want a level of face-to-face interaction. They will want to try on clothes, go to the local bookstore, or meet their friends at the mall––online shopping doesn’t allow for that.

“There will always be a human dimension to commerce,” Ben (pictured above) concludes. “And that means there will always be a level of demand for bricks-and-mortar.”

Nonetheless, the demand on the high street is currently declining––the pandemic has made that downturn all the more apparent––and physical retailers are likely to continue to see a loss in revenue, job cuts, and store closures in the short-term.

The large department stores who have become the victims of the pandemic were already suffering losses beforehand, and so COVID-19 isn’t the sole cause of their demise. For the survivors, it will take innovation and a reimagining of traditional business models for them to prosper post-pandemic.

There’s the opportunity to reshape the bricks-and-mortar infrastructure, but this will take time and there will likely be growing pains. The industry now needs future-focused visionaries who are able to provide fresh perspective and reinvigorate bricks-and-mortar retail in the years to come.

BB Insights explores the latest research and trends from the business school classroom, drawing on the expertise of world-leading professors to inspire and inform current and future leaders