What is your view on the prospects of retail REITs given the growing trend of E-commerce? Should we now focus on retail REITs as we look forward to a recovery in the retail sectors?

The following is a response from the organisers of REITs Symposium 2020:

Retail REITs generally recognise the threat of e-commerce for brick and mortar stores. Therefore, many of these segment players have evolved to combat against the rising competition. E.g.

• Diversifying tenant types to include more experiential types like movie theatres/food courts etc.

• Capitalising on digital transformations and transitioning to Omni-channel strategies

The iEdge Factset Global Ecommerce Index has generated similar ~50% gains to the iEdge Global Internet Index in the 2020 YTD.