Bucking the disappointing retail sales trend, Amazon.com Friday announced its best holiday season ever, selling 72.9 items per second on one peak day, Dec. 15.
The online retailer, which did not disclose revenues, said that in that 24-hour period, it received 6.3 million orders and shipped to customers in more than 210 countries.
The "big print" media is not the only industry that needs to roll with the times. Retail, in general, is getting its lunch handed to it because so many of these entities have not solidly made the effort to intigrate into the digital community.
Think about the groans and gripes you hear around the holidays when someone asks if another has finished their Holiday shopping. Almost always, there is a complaint of traffic and lines...which plays into the growing apathy, laziness and immediate gratification requirements of today's society.
The simple fact of the matter is that more people are shopping online. It will only grow in the future. The day of the physical retail store is in just as much danger of disappearing as newspapers and magazines.
Also, if you're tall, you've probably noticed that the major clothing retailers rarely have anything in your size anymore. This is directly related to two things:
1. Cutting costs of stocking sparingly purchased sizes.
2. The influx of immigration to the United States has actually lowered the average height of the constituents. Thus, a retailer must play to its most common consumer. The tall sizes are more available online...so guess where tall people shop.
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