Statista: Who’s surviving the retail apocalypse?

With the bankruptcy of Sears making the news this week, along with retail news from the NRF indicating a strong retail environment, there’s a mixed message in the media. Or is there?

According to the above chart from Statista, based on Nielsen data, some retail categories have been hit much harder by the rise of online shopping than others. While things have indeed been looking bleak for brick-and-mortar book, apparel and electronics stores, other store categories, particularly those serving everyday needs, have actually seen a net rise in store count over the past decade.

Statista notes, “while online retail sales rose to more than $450 billion in the United States last year, they still account for little more than 10 percent of total retail sales, depending on which categories you want to include in that total.”