The Death of Traditional Retail

Don't listen to your customers? Don't improve the level of service or the experience for clients? Then you may find your company, and your industry, on life support—just like traditional retailers.


After years of warning from analysts, suppliers and yes, customers themselves, retailers like Macy's, Kohl's, Sears and the rest are going the way of the dinosaur.


Yesterday, Amazon.com (said it added more than 50 more brands to its lineup of wireless Dash Buttons, and it said the frequency of Dash orders rose 70% in the past three months. Amazon said Prime members are increasingly using Dash Button to order everyday essentials and that order frequency doubled in the past three months among Prime member who use the service.

Just last month, Cowen & Co., a financial services firm, predicted that Amazon will replace Macy's as the No. 1 US apparel retailer by 2017. Think about that. For more than a century, women had to walk past beauty counters to get to the RTW racks. Now, they're just a click away from a host of dresses, business outfits and casual wear.