Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/753030
T: +1 646 728 3800 F: +1 732 694 1730 www.icsc.org Publisher PATRICIA NORINS Editor in Chief EDMUND MANDER +1 646 728 3487 EDITORIAL Managing Editor BRANNON BOSWELL +1 646 728 3488 Copy Chief DAVID S. ORTIZ Copy Editor VALERIE DAVID Contributing Editors STEVE BERGSMAN JOE GOSE JOEL GROOVER BEN JOHNSON BETH KARLIN BETH MATTSON-TEIG STEVE M c LINDEN REBECCA MEISER MISTY MILIOTO JESSE SERWER JENNIFER TOMSHACK ADVERTISING & MARKETING MICHAEL BELLI +1 714 313 1942 mbelli@icsc.org SHEILA CHARTON +1 646 728 3545 scharton@icsc.org AMIE LEIBOVITZ +1 773 360 1179 aleibovitz@icsc.org SALLY STEPHENSON +1 847 835 1617 sstephenson@icsc.org Production Manager DAVID STACKHOUSE +1 646 728 3482 dstackhouse@icsc.org ICSC OFFICERS Chair man ELIZABETH I. HOLLAND President and CEO TOM M c GEE Vice Chairman KENNETH F. BERNSTEIN Past Chairman STEPHEN D. LEBOVITZ Treasurer STEFAN FREIBERG For article reprints, call (866) 879-9144 or contact sales@fostereprints.com S H O P P I N G C E N T E R S T O D A Y SCT (ISSN 0885-9841) is pub lished monthly. VOLUME 37, ISSUE 12 © 2016, International Coun cil of Shop ping Cen ters, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020-1099; phone, +1 (646) 728 3800; fax, +1 732 694 1730. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and ad di tion al mailing offices. Sub scrip - tions $70 per year; Canada and other foreign $99. Single- copy price $10 (May issue $20). For subscription informa- tion call +1 727 784 2000. POST MAS TER: Send address changes to Shopping Cen ters Today, Sawida Worley, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020-1099. Publications mail agreement No. 41482022, return unde- liverable Canadian addresses to PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill ON L4B 4R6. Perception vs. reality B ased upon media and other coverage, many might believe that e-commerce is a terminal threat to physical retailers and is rapidly taking market share. The reality is quite different. The statistics presented about the growth of e-commerce are often misleading and in some cases simply incorrect. A big reason for the misperception about online retail stems from a misinterpretation of the U.S. Census Bureau's e-commerce sales data, as spelled out in a recent report by ICSC Research. In particular, confusion arises from the Census Bureau's Quarterly E-Commerce Report showing that e-commerce sales have tripled over the past decade, from $113.5 billion in 2006 to $343 billion last year, leading many to highlight a 13 percent compound annual growth rate for e-commerce. As I mentioned last month, if you break down this number, a different picture emerges. First, e-commerce transactions last year still comprised only 7 percent of the country's $4.7 trillion in total retail sales. Further, that 7 percent includes shipping and service charges, as well as online sales from brick-and-mortar retailers. This means pure-play retailer's sales actually only made up roughly 3.7 percent of total retail sales in 2015. That is a much smaller percentage than the one often reported, and it is also a number dwarfed by brick-and-mortar transactions. (The full report from ICSC Research — Deconstructing the Census Bureau's Retail Trade E-Commerce Figures — is available at icsc.org.) The continuing vitality of physical retail is underscored too by ICSC's latest holiday intentions survey, which records 91 percent of shoppers surveyed saying they will be buying in stores. We also expect sales to grow by 3.3 percent year on year this holiday season, up from an increase of 2.2 percent last year. So the real story about e-commerce and physical retail is this: Physical retailers remain at the center of shopping, and they are using e-commerce to bring even more people to their stores. Pure-play online retailers, meanwhile, are busy opening stores, recognizing that those are vital to their survival. There is a big gap on a lot of issues between the media's perception of our industry and the reality, and we are confronting it head-on this holiday season with a media campaign titled just that — Perception vs. Reality, noting among many other things, that industry occupancy stands at a robust 93 percent; that American adults visit a shopping center on average 4.7 times per month or 1.2 times per week; and that shopping center construction reached $16.3 billion in 2015. Those are the headlines that ICSC and the industry, working as one, are determined to generate. Tom McGee ICSC President and CEO A M E S S A G E F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T