Since the advent of online retailing, there has been no shortage of analysts and observers ready to predict that pure players would, literally, set up shop. Yet this forecast has proven largely incorrect so far. Yes, one or two of the virtual giants have established one-off and temporary outlets but these have – while duly noting exceptions such as N Brown - predominantly been marketing exercises. For the most part those who began without a store presence have remained that way.

Against this backdrop the prediction that one in six online retailers in the UK plans to expand into store premises during 2014 is all the more extraordinary. The poll of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), published by the Royal Mail last week, found 16% of online retailers plan to open a store or seek space in an existing one. Another 15% of the eretailers said they were going to use online marketplaces to boost sales and 40% of those surveyed said they would trade from new channels in the coming 12 months.

I would be very cautious of anticipating these sorts of numbers but the very fact that so many online traders are even considering a store presence is notable in itself. There has been grave concern that the market traders and small store entrepreneurs from which many of our biggest chains can trace their routes have instead defected to become the internet entrepreneurs of the modern generation – put off the physical world by high rents, start-up costs and the perennial issue of covenants.

Yet those very same businesses are also noting that consumers increasingly desire a seamless experience across the multiple channels usually available to them and that a physical presence through stores can potentially net sales on the ground and push more traffic online.

Landlords should be thinking about their next steps very carefully. Shopping centres have traditionally not been fertile ground for start-ups but there have been attempts in recent years to create better environments and business models for independents, often grouping them in sections of shopping centres that blend between the mall and the high street. Similarly, although high streets have been the incubators for many a rags-to-riches tale, the increasing importance of prime, high footfall positions mitigates against those without the trading years to provide strong covenants.

So if there really is a new breed of online expansionists crying our for retail space, landlords need to be ready to help them, which is going to mean rethinking a lot of the norms that became de facto in more predictable times but which act as barriers now. If a new online brand is ready to risk quite possibly every penny they have to reach out to the high street, shouldn’t the property industry be readying itself to take a risk on the potential of a new generation of retailers?

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