Either way, it is impossible to miss the low cloud hovering over the retail sector at the business end of a year that has brought an extraordinary acceleration in online shopping. But online shopping is not just for Christmas and some of the physical trade lost to the infinite array of e-commerce merchants may never come back. Some retailers that built their success on actual shops with tills and changing rooms – maybe even toilets – have also developed snazzy online operations, of course. Alas, the only theatre in shops for much of 2020 has been the “Covid theatre” of mask-wearing and sanitation stations. Certainly, the woes of fashion empire Arcadia bode further ill for the vibrancy of several Irish retail centres.

Source: The Irish Times December 01, 2020 05:41 UTC