Online shopping

[heanme]

Hi, First post here...Shy......What effect do think online shopping will have on retail/commercial building in the future?

[Monid]

Hi Heanme, welcome to PT. Interesting question.

I'm guessing it depends on the industry. In information based industries (such as banking) it is likely to ultimately decrease their demand for retail space because they need fewer physical branches. On the other hand they may need more commercial space to house the people to deal with the internet side of things.

With companies dealing in physical goods I don't think it will make that much difference since they still need storage space to keep their inventory before they ship it.

That said it depends on how well online shopping takes off, I think it is still only a small fraction of the market over here (in the UK) and I imagine it is even smaller in NZ.

Cheers
David

[RentMaster]

I think in some industries online sales are really taking off. In particular music, software and movies. Anything that comes on a CD or DVD will be done online in future and downloaded.

But I dont think it will have a major impact on retailers other than those in a small number of industries. People still like to touch stuff and see it in person before buying. For some people retail-therapy is a hobby.

[whitt]

I have been told there is quite a few interent operations operating out of those secure storage garages.

The cost I was told is only about $150PW and the storage company has toliets etc at there facility.

The person went on to mention that the operation he saw in Auckland had numerous cheap labour type persons packaging up items from within the container/ storage unit.

The only rules that would limit you is your contract with them. Can you run a bussiness from it? They all mention you can't llive in the unit.