How to Compete as a Brick and Mortar Business in the Age of Amazon

There’s no denying that Amazon is ruling the roost right now in the retail sector. However, just because the ecommerce giant owns the lion’s share of the market, doesn’t mean brick and mortar is obsolete. For proactive retailers, there are plenty of ways to stay relevant. In June 2006, Standard & Poor launched the S&P Retail Sector ETF, using the ticker symbol XRT. This ETF is used as a sort of barometer for tracking and gauging the health of the nation’s retail sector over time. While it does include some ecommerce businesses in the fund, XRT is predominantly comprised of brick and mortar retailers. Any educated, data-driven conversation on brick and mortar business in the U.S. should involve an examination of XRT. Keeping this in mind, what does it currently say about physical retailers in a marketplace that appears to be dominated by ecommerce?