Article Analysis: CNBC News - Online Shopping Overtakes Retail

This report analyzes an article from CNBC News titled "Online shopping overtakes a major part of retail for the first time ever." The article, authored by Kate Rooney and published on April 2, 2019, discusses the significant shift in the retail industry where online shopping, led by Amazon, has surpassed traditional brick-and-mortar stores. The analysis highlights the growth of online sales, the impact of Amazon Prime, and the implications for direct marketing, retailing, and wholesaling. The report connects these concepts to the article's content, emphasizing the changing distribution processes, the role of wholesalers, and the evolving relationship between retailers and consumers. The article's findings are contextualized within the broader discussion of e-commerce's influence on the retail landscape, referencing relevant academic sources to support the analysis and provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject. This analysis showcases how online retail has grown and its effects on the market share of physical stores, illustrating key milestones and the evolution of sales from the 1900s to 2019, and its implications for retailers, wholesalers and consumers. This report will help students understand the changes in the retail industry and their impact on various business aspects.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
1. Name of the Article
The name of the article that has been chosen for detailed analysis is “Online shopping
overtakes a major part of retail for the first time ever.”
2. Name of the source and include the Website's address (URL) so the Instructor can look
at the article
The article that has been selected for the analysis has been procured from the page of
CNBC News. The URL of the article is as “https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/02/online-shopping-
officially-overtakes-brick-and-mortar-retail-for-the-first-time-ever.html”
3. Author and Date of the article
The author of the article is “Kate Rooney” and it had been published on April 2, 2019.
4. Detailed article summary
The article is mainly based on the methods by which online shopping has taken over a
major part of the retail operations. The online shopping based industry has been led by Amazon
which has proved to be a major disruptor in the sector. Amazon had also been successful in
developing a huge milestone in the month of February and the market share of physical retail
organizations have been reduced by due to entry of online shopping. The increased usage of
internet by customers has also been able to influence the operations of physical retail
organizations (Bernon, Cullen & Gorst, 2016). The total shares that have been gained by the non-
store based or online retail organizations in the US have become higher in comparison to the
sales of general merchandise. The article has also been able to provide details related to the
journey that has been completed by the usage of online shopping and internet (Cnbc.com. 2020).

2ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
The growth of online shopping and retailing has been able to influence the market share
gained by physical retail stores that operate in the US. The Retail Sales based report that has
been generated by the organizations are able to highlight the major milestones related to increase
of online shopping. The article has also discussed the huge progress that has been depicted by the
online shopping and retail organizations in the last few years. The sales have rose from around
5% in the 1900s to 12% in the year 2019. The online sales have also beat the sales of general
merchandise based stores that also include the department stores, super centers and warehouse
clubs. The non-store retail sales has also accounted for more than 11% of the total sales in the
entire retail sector (Cnbc.com. 2020).
The sales of brick and mortar organizations have however been higher in comparison to
the restaurant sales and the auto revenues as well. Online sales have also been able to become the
fourth biggest sector in the world with respect to 59.8 Billion Dollars of total sales that have been
made in the year 2019. Amazon has been able to play the most important role in enhancing the
growth of online sales and the e-commerce industry. The article also has been able to depict that
Amazon Prime has been a major driver of the enhancement of market share of online sales based
industry (Li, 2017).
5. Ways by which the paper content should applies to the class
The summary of the article has been able to depict that the online sales industry has been
successful in gaining a huge share in the market in comparison to the physical retail
organizations that operate in the US. The concepts related to which knowledge has been
provided mainly include direct marketing, retailing and wholesaling. The concept of wholesaling
has been described as the transactions in which the products are mainly purchased for the
purpose of reselling and for the development of the other products as well. The wholesalers have

3ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
the ability to play a major role in proper development of the supply chain of organizations
(Bonetti, Warnaby & Quinn, 2018). The concept related to merchant wholesalers has also been
discussed previously which is mainly based on the full-service and the limited-service based
wholesalers. The brokers and agents are also able to play a main part in proper development of
the retail processes of the firms. The locations of different sales branches can play a key part in
development of the processes of physical retail based organizations (Linzbach, Inman &
Nikolova, 2019).
Physical distribution process of the organizations are also considered to be important
aspects that can have an impact on sales and the ways by which they can reach the consumers as
well. The article has been able to depict the levels of impact that online sales have on the
physical retail based organizations in the US. Amazon has been considered to be a major
disruptor in the retail industry that has a huge influence on the growth of e-commerce in the US
and different other countries as well. The services that are offered to the consumers are also
influenced by the online and offline activities of the retail organizations (Cnbc.com. 2020). The
aspects that have been analyzed in the article are connected in a huge manner with the concepts
that have been discussed previously. The distribution process of the organizations are also
considered to be quite different in case of the physical retail and the online retail organizations as
well (Ellis-Chadwick, 2018).
The impact of Amazon on the online retail industry is mainly based on the distribution
process that has been developed by the organization. The lack of agents or huge number of
brokers in the supply chain is also considered to be a major difference between the operations of
online retail organizations and physical retail stores as well (Wang, Leng & Liang, 2018). The
relationship that has been developed with the consumers are also considered to be an important

4ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
aspect that can have an impact on the revenues and levels of profitability as well. The analysis in
the article can thereby be linked with the concepts that have been discussed in detail previously.
The enhancement of the growth of online retail industry can also be related to the concepts that
have been discussed in the class (Evans, Murray & Schmalensee, 2016).

5ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
References
Bernon, M., Cullen, J., & Gorst, J. (2016). Online retail returns management: Integration within
an omni-channel distribution context. International Journal of Physical Distribution &
Logistics Management, 46(6/7).
Bonetti, F., Warnaby, G., & Quinn, L. (2018). Augmented reality and virtual reality in physical
and online retailing: A review, synthesis and research agenda. In Augmented reality and
virtual reality (pp. 119-132). Springer, Cham.
Cnbc.com. (2020). Online shopping overtakes a major part of retail for the first time ever.
Retrieved 15 April 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/02/online-shopping-
officially-overtakes-brick-and-mortar-retail-for-the-first-time-ever.html
Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2018). The future of retailing*: From physical to digital. In The Routledge
Companion to the History of Retailing (pp. 67-79). Routledge.
Evans, D. S., Murray, S., & Schmalensee, R. (2016). Why online retail sales are much larger
than US census data report. Available at SSRN 2716266.
Li, S. (2017, November). Research on the Integrated Development Model of e-Commerce
Channel and Physical Retail Channel. In International Symposium on Intelligence
Computation and Applications (pp. 273-279). Springer, Singapore.
Linzbach, P., Inman, J. J., & Nikolova, H. (2019). E-Commerce in a physical store: which
retailing technologies add real value?. NIM Marketing Intelligence Review, 11(1), 42-47.

6ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
Wang, C., Leng, M., & Liang, L. (2018). Choosing an online retail channel for a manufacturer:
Direct sales or consignment?. International Journal of Production Economics, 195, 338-
358.