eCommerce

Location: Doral, Florida

Size: 600,000 sq. ft.

Owner: The Related Group, Related Development LLC, Shoma Homes

Key Tenants: Fresh Market, CinéBistro-Cobb Theatre, Kings Bowling

Other uses/components: 1,000 new luxury residences

Status: Under construction, set for completion Q4 2016

It’s no secret that today’s consumers have busy lives. And, while online retailers may have the convenience edge, e-commerce simply cannot offer the experience found in physical spaces. Smart mixed-use developers are capitalizing by filling the gap — plugging in a wide range of components, such as entertainment, new-to-market stores, hospitality, residences and offices to make brick-and-mortar far more compelling than a computer experience.

Another iconic U.S. brand has opened its own freestanding store. Ice hockey equipment giant Bauer Hockey, founded in 1927, made its brick-and-mortar debut, in Burlington, Massachusetts. The 20,000-sq.-ft. store, called

Bealls Inc., the 100-year-old privately held operator of over 530 stores, is expanding its retail footprint with a new specialty store format, Bunulu.

Focused on the coastal lifestyle and targeted at outdoor and youth-minded shoppers, the new concept has a more upmarket vibe than Bealls’ other banners. It premiered at Coconut Point Mall in Estero, Florida. Two additional locations — at St. Johns Town Center, Jacksonville, Florida, and The Garden Mall, Palm Beach, Florida — are set to open by the end of this year.

Snellville, Ga. -- Olshan Properties announced two new retail tenants have signed leases at The Shoppes at Webb Gin in Snellville, Georgia. Orangetheory Fitness opened earlier this month and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop announced plans to open in early fall at the center.

Today’s consumer is driven by an “I want it now” mentality, yet retailers are still not prepared to deliver. Reducing the time it takes an order to arrive at a customer’s home is every retailer’s objective, but while quicker fulfillment makes customers happy, it comes at a cost.

October will be over in a flash, and with it, all eyes will be on the holiday season, which is measured from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.

The 2015 retail calendar has several distinctions, as we saw Memorial Day fall on the earliest possible date and Labor Day on the latest possible date. This holiday season, there are 28 days between Thanksgiving (not counting the actual day) and Christmas, which is an average amount for the period separating the two holidays.

Experiential retail is alive and well at PGA Tour Superstore.

The company, which has the distinction of being the PGA Tour’s exclusive off-course/off-airport retail partner, has built a business dedicated to providing golf enthusiasts of all levels access to the same technology and expertise that card-carrying Tour pros enjoy. Stores are staffed with teaching professionals and have multiple state-of-the-art swing simulators, practice hitting bays and large putting greens. There is also an in-house club-making and repair facility.

More retailers going from clicks to bricks

The emphasis on omnichannel commerce has largely laid to rest (at least for now) the debate of online versus offline. Indeed, A.T. Kearney put it best in the title of a recent study, “On Solid Ground: Brick and Mortar is the Foundation of Omnichannel Retailing.”

It’s only October, but the holiday forecasts are starting to pour in. At this point out, it looks like it will be a “modest” season, with Deloitte (whose forecast, unlike some others, includes the month of January) predicting a 3.5% to 4% increase in sales over last year.