“Off-price retailers are resonating with fashion and cost-conscious consumers alike, and are stealing department store business for good reason,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for The NPD Group, in a statement. “Off-price is second only to the online channel in terms of growth rate.”

This is true within apparel. Off-price continues to thrive as long as they have the inventory to choose from. The excess inventories of department stores has fueled the off-price players.

No doubt Amazon’s “explosive growth” and online shopping are eating into sales and margins at both brick-and-mortar stores and malls, said Oliver Chen, retail analyst with Cowen & Co., in a July research note. But stores such as T.J. Maxx, Burlington Coat Factory and Ross Stores ROST +0.26% are “un-Amazonable,” he said.

I don't believe this to be true. The off-price players have plenty of runway with the current state of retail disarray but they will inevitably need an ecommerce strategy at some point. I would also argue that they would be growing considerably faster now if Amazon and subsidiaries wasn't in the picture.