Can E-Commerce Affect the property valuation of markets located in the Town's center?

 The Future of our Markets:

Three years on since the pandemic has hit us hard, every aspect of our day to day life got affected. In most of the countries, the inflation rate went all-time high. The worst affected group was the middle working class. Their income went down and the prices of the commodities hit an all-time high. The reason behind the skyrocketing inflations are obvious, with the lockdowns in place in most parts of the world, the production of the goods decreased in most areas but the demand was the same as before the pandemics. So, the demand and supply chain was disrupted by the pandemic thus punishing the poor and middle class hard.

           Most of the restaurants and bars were shut in that period. They were doing their business, they changed their methods.  Door to delivery became a common norm. Most of the shops around the world started parcel services.  Thus the one did not have to leave home to do some shopping, You could get everything at your doorstep with just a few clicks on your smartphone. 

           E-commerce was thriving before the pandemic as well. The only thing pandemic did was escalated the speed of its spread across the globe. Online shopping was a rare thing in the West African countries before the pandemic now every person is familiar with it. A lot of people found their employment in this new field. They started as a small store operating from their home, where they do not have to lease an expensive shop in the supermarket. They avoided all the overheads which a shop in the cities had to bear but they were doing the same business. The only difference was that people were not paying a visit to their shop instead they were visiting people’s homes.

In the era of the internet where 5G is about to spread across the globe, is online shopping is the future of Shops. The point to be noted here is that we can view the products on our phones in 3Ds  as well these days, hence making it easier for us to have the experience of the product.  What will happen to the property market of big shops located in the city centre >?  Will they be able to hold their valuation or will there be a decrement in the valuation of these such properties? No doubt these are the intriguing question which we will try to answer.

It’s a truth that life has become busier than ever before. We don’t have even time for our kids and families. Everyone is after raising their capitals than the other. So, we are busy in a race with one another. Do we have time to go to shops to buy some stuff for ourselves in such a busy lifestyle? The simple answer would be no. The time it takes to go to shops and do the useless act of shopping we can invest the same time to earn some money. So then who will do the shopping for us? For that, you don’t have to worry these days., One can shop from the comfort of their home these days, the phenomenon is called online shopping.  If everyone in the future adopts the same routes what will happen to the poor shop owner sitting in the city corner? Perhaps he will change the style of his business, he will start an online delivery service. But you can do the same thing from your home without paying heaving rents and bills, what‘s the point in owning a shop in the market?  I guess it will be still a good practice, but the value it carried in the past will not be the same. Can we predict their future valuation considering the booming E-commerce phenomenon?  At present, it‘s hard to predict such a future because technology is changing our lives at a very fast pace. We don’t know what is happening to us? How technology is reshaping our lives?

           In future, most of the jobs will be done by AI and machine learning. The job I am doing right now, who know will be done by a robot after some time. After a certain threshold, the technology will start replicating its elves, Where it will no longer require a human programmer, but that’s still a bit far. Will robots do the shopping for us too or they will be limited to the delivery side of the shopping? We can’t say anything right now, but one thing is certain the way we live today will not be the way we will live tomorrow.  In my view, supermarkets in the developed world will be worst affected than the developing world, because the use of technology is widespread in the first world. The markets will lose the property valuation to some extent but there will be alternative ways where we will have the bustling city centres, where we will have humans and robots walking together side by side..