The landscape for retail has changed dramatically these few years as online e-commerce have become more accessible, due to the improvement in the retail supply chain and processes of online retailers.
Thus, more and more consumers are purchasing what they need online. This means that retailers need less space. For retailers that are primarily brick and mortar, they face a daunting prospect of having too short a time to ramp up their e-commerce strategy to compete.
Many retailers face the prospect of closing down, and for the anchor tenants, they are factoring E-Commerce into their overall strategy and thus need a smaller retail space.
All these spells trouble for the retail REITs. In Singapore, the retail REITs Suntec, SPH, Starhill Global REIT, Capitaland Mall, Frasers Centerpoint Trust and Mapletree Commercial are still surviving. (look up their dividend yields on my dividend stock tracker)
This week, I read this piece ......