Holiday spending in the U.S. is estimated to total nearly $1 trillion this year, as shoppers rush to buy gifts, food, and decorations and take advantage of retailers’ steep discounts. However, this strong consumer spending obscures the growing shift toward e-commerce, and the decline of brick-and-mortar retail.

Here are the key takeaways from the report for Georgia:

• Between 2011 and 2021, Georgia experienced a 7.6% decline in the number of brick-and-mortar retail stores per capita.

• As a result, there are just 3.1 brick-and-mortar retail stores for every 1,000 Georgia residents.

• Overall, Georgia is seeing a slower decline in its brick-and-mortar retail than the nation as a whole (-12.6%).

The holiday season is in full swing, and for U.S. retailers, it is often the busiest season of the year for consumer spending. Holiday spending in the U.S. is estimated to total nearly $1 trillion¹ in 2023 as shoppers rush to buy gifts, food, and decorations and take advantage of retailers’ steep discounts.

However, the overall strength of consumer spending obscures how trends in retail have shifted over time, often creating challenges for local stores. The pandemic played a part in accelerating a major trend that has impacted the sector in recent years: the growing shift toward e-commerce and the decline of brick-and-mortar retail.

Online sales have dramatically reshaped the retail industry since the turn of the millennium. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, startups like Amazon and eBay led the charge into e-commerce, and their successes led established retail chains to make online shopping a core component of their businesses. From 2000 to 2019, e-commerce grew from 0.9% of all retail sales to 10.6%. And with many physical retail stores closing or experiencing lower traffic in the wake of COVID-19, online sales jumped again to 14.6% in 2020 and have not fallen off since.

While there are some signs that independent retail is remaining resilient — catering to conscientious shoppers who prioritize buying local — the economies of scale, supply chain networks, and technological expertise available to the biggest retail players have generally been too much for competing independent stores or midsize chains to overcome. Between 2011 and 2021 (the latest 10-year period with available data from the U.S. Census Bureau), the U.S. lost 60,000 retail stores, marking a 12.6% decline in stores per capita.

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