"Gone are the days of spending hours at the mall buying holiday presents, or waking up at the crack of dawn to shop for Black Friday deals. When it comes to gifts and sales, online shopping is people’s first choice." -- Amara Deanes, 6th Grade
Gone are the days of spending hours at the mall buying holiday presents, or waking up at the crack of dawn to shop for Black Friday deals. When it comes to gifts and sales, online shopping is people’s first choice. With the rise of online shopping platforms such as Amazon and nearly every store having its own website, it’s almost pointless to shop in stores. In fact, 56% of Americans prefer to shop in-store, but about the same amount of Americans like the perks of shopping online. “I would enjoy shopping in-store more, but they usually don’t have what I’m looking for, so I usually resort to Amazon for anything I need,” said Cece Burger, a 6th grade Literary Arts student.
The trend of shopping online has been growing over the years. In 2021, people spent $204 billion online, which was 8.6% more than in 2020. But in 2022, inflation really affected Americans’ shopping budgets. Nearly two years later and everything is still expensive. “Tell me why the heckity hecker everything is so expensive?” asked an exasperated Burger.
Furthermore, the main thing that drove online sales were discounts. With Black Friday turning into Cyber Week, which turned into the entire month of November being a slough of sales, deals have been easy to find, in-store at least. “They’re always sales in-store, but they barely have sales on Amazon,” Burger said. But Forbes says the opposite. “Price/deals” was the leading reason for shopping online (such as Amazon, eBay, etc).”
Even though Americans are hunting for deals and discounts, excitement for Black Friday in-store has dwindled. When online sales are happening throughout the month of November, waking up at the crack of dawn to get to malls early is unnecessary. “...it's 2023 and there's this thing called online where the deals have already started,” said ABC7 News.
But online shopping isn’t just affecting the holiday season. Dying malls are another symptom of the rise of online shopping. The main thing that drives the death of a mall is the loss of the department store, such as Kohl’s, Macy’s, or Sears. Department stores are often the anchor for smaller malls in more rural and suburban areas. Without them, the rest of the mall doesn’t have its attraction. People usually come for the department store, and then stay to shop around at the other stores. “We're at a point now where more than a third of the 1,500 properties are no longer functioning as malls,” said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the Urban Design program at Georgia Tech, in an interview with NPR.
But not all malls are dying. Bigger, newer malls are doing well. Some brands are building stores in large malls. In fact, it’s cheaper to do so. CNN reported that “...some digital-only brands have begun setting up shop in malls in order to expand their reach at a lower cost. Warby Parker, Allbirds, and Wayfair are just a handful of online companies that have opened or announced that they will be opening conventional retail locations.”
But, the malls that are growing are usually in more affluent areas. The richer the people who live near a mall, the more successful the mall. “Malls featuring luxury retailers and newer direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands; often located in more affluent areas where a typical shopper has an annual income of over $200,000,” said Coresight Research in a study conducted earlier this year. These richer, newer, malls are called Top-Tier Malls.
Online shopping has changed the way we shop. But it can’t replace the experience of visiting a mall. "Nothing beats a good mall’s Wetzel’s Pretzels,” said Burger.
The trend of shopping online has been growing over the years. In 2021, people spent $204 billion online, which was 8.6% more than in 2020. But in 2022, inflation really affected Americans’ shopping budgets. Nearly two years later and everything is still expensive. “Tell me why the heckity hecker everything is so expensive?” asked an exasperated Burger.
Furthermore, the main thing that drove online sales were discounts. With Black Friday turning into Cyber Week, which turned into the entire month of November being a slough of sales, deals have been easy to find, in-store at least. “They’re always sales in-store, but they barely have sales on Amazon,” Burger said. But Forbes says the opposite. “Price/deals” was the leading reason for shopping online (such as Amazon, eBay, etc).”
Even though Americans are hunting for deals and discounts, excitement for Black Friday in-store has dwindled. When online sales are happening throughout the month of November, waking up at the crack of dawn to get to malls early is unnecessary. “...it's 2023 and there's this thing called online where the deals have already started,” said ABC7 News.
But online shopping isn’t just affecting the holiday season. Dying malls are another symptom of the rise of online shopping. The main thing that drives the death of a mall is the loss of the department store, such as Kohl’s, Macy’s, or Sears. Department stores are often the anchor for smaller malls in more rural and suburban areas. Without them, the rest of the mall doesn’t have its attraction. People usually come for the department store, and then stay to shop around at the other stores. “We're at a point now where more than a third of the 1,500 properties are no longer functioning as malls,” said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the Urban Design program at Georgia Tech, in an interview with NPR.
But not all malls are dying. Bigger, newer malls are doing well. Some brands are building stores in large malls. In fact, it’s cheaper to do so. CNN reported that “...some digital-only brands have begun setting up shop in malls in order to expand their reach at a lower cost. Warby Parker, Allbirds, and Wayfair are just a handful of online companies that have opened or announced that they will be opening conventional retail locations.”
But, the malls that are growing are usually in more affluent areas. The richer the people who live near a mall, the more successful the mall. “Malls featuring luxury retailers and newer direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands; often located in more affluent areas where a typical shopper has an annual income of over $200,000,” said Coresight Research in a study conducted earlier this year. These richer, newer, malls are called Top-Tier Malls.
Online shopping has changed the way we shop. But it can’t replace the experience of visiting a mall. "Nothing beats a good mall’s Wetzel’s Pretzels,” said Burger.