There is no substitute for the convenience of local, physical retail, and its future is bright, investors and analysts told CNBC.

“Neighborhood retail is convenient to everyone’s daily life: You’re going to a dry cleaner, a liquor store and a nail salon, [and] maybe a restaurant,” Jay Rollins, managing principal of JCR Capital, told the cable channel. JCR Capital invests in value-add, urban in-fill and neighborhood retail center real estate. “It’s about the three-to-five-mile concentric circle around a neighborhood; it’s convenience retail versus destination,” he said. “Can you push a button, and have a drone drop you a bottle of Jack Daniels in 10 minutes? That would be a game changer.”

The retail industry directly employs 29 million people and contributes upwards of $1 billion annually to the U.S. gross domestic product, thanks mostly to smaller businesses, according to a PwC study done for the National Retail Federation.