Walmart has now officially joined the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a member. For those new to retail, this may seem to be no big deal, but the background is that Walmart and the NRF have been in what amounts to a blood feud for decades.
The success of online retailers has been linked to the demise of many high street shops in the UK, most recently HMV and Jessops. The remaining retailers have clear strategies which incorporate on-line shopping with home delivery and are often further supported by other initiatives, such as click and collect, where goods are ordered online but delivered to a third-party address, such as a local garage or convenience store, to avoid the disappointment of missed home deliveries.
Retailers will drive demand for up to 270 million square feet of warehouse space in Europe, including 33 million square feet for e-commerce, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle.
The National Retail Federation estimates that nearly $9bn was lost by merchants in returns fraud in 2012. And according to a report from ThreatMetrix, online fraud resulted in about $3.5bn in lost revenue in North America last year.