Traditional Retailers Catch Up to Online-Only Names

The tide is starting to turn for brick-and-mortar retailers. Long the digital laggard to online-only shops, traditional stores are beginning to capitalize on their robust physical footprints — namely, by using them as souped-up distribution networks — as they continue to make their web and mobile operations easier for shoppers to use. "Our analysis indicates traditional retailers' supply chain costs are roughly three times lower than [online] pure-plays when leveraging store fulfillment capabilities," Cowen & Co. Analyst Oliver Chen wrote in a note to investors Thursday.