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Stable growth, a focus on omnichannel and the continued evolution of e-commerce: those are the pillars of this year’s retail outlook.
The latest Fitch Ratings’ Outlook report predicts US retail sales, save those of cars and gasoline, will climb between 3% and 4% in 2017, RetailDive reports. While growth at that level is stable and in line with the 3.8% predicted for the year, experts say it won’t be evenly divided between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar growth—more than half of it is expected to come from e-commerce while in-store sales are projected to grow 1%.
If retailers want any chance of growing more in an era of online shopping, they need to focus on building omnichannel services, experts say. The challenge for retailers is to find how to offer the best mix of services and experiences to draw in consumers who would otherwise buy from Amazon. [RD]
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