If you can't beat 'em, do what they do. But don't expect to beat 'em.

Ailing department store Macy's (M) - Get Report , once a pillar of nearly every U.S. shopping mall, announced a restructuring plan that will revolve around refocusing more of its resources on e-commerce. That means this classic bricks-and-mortar business has all but conceded that Amazon has the right retail strategy.

But Macy's efforts are unlikely to eat into Amazon's huge lead in the e-commerce space. The company's latest initiative is too late. Investors should avoid the stock. Macy's shares dropped more than 1% in Monday trading and are down more than 20% over the past year.

Macy's has long been the world's top retailer when it comes to apparel and accessory sales. However, last year, analysts began to predict that Amazon would outpace the department store sometime in 2017. This news was shocking: Apparel sales had long been thought beyond the scope of e-commerce. After all, when purchasing online you can't try on items before purchase. And returns can be a headache.

However, consumers proved that this long-held notion was false. During the first half of 2016, clothing sales at Macy's, Nordstrom, and other bricks-and-mortar retailers, as well as lower-end chains like Wal-Mart and Target , Fell, while apparel purchases on Amazon increased by nearly 20%.

In 2015, Macy's made strides to unify its merchandising and marketing operations both in-store and online. That meant shifting away from the industry standard of keeping the two separated and streamlining its operations.

However, it hasn't been enough. Consumers have been turning away from traditional department store shopping.

The restructuring effort will lead to the closure of as many as 68 of its 880 stores and eliminate roughly 10,000 jobs. Macy's expects to pay $550 million to fund its new digital efforts.

While bricks-and-mortar sales slipped, the company reported decent revenue growth on both macys.com and sister site bloomingdales.com during 2016.

New efforts will involve mobile commerce, digital analytics and mobile app in-store purchasing.

But Amazon's reach continues to grow. During 2016, the e-commerce juggernaut snatched nearly 50% of the online shopping market. Macy's has less than 2% of the e-commerce market share and will need to work hard to raise that total.

Investors should expect the company's stock to be volatile for 2017. Macy's started off this year by plunging 14% to a new 52-week low after slashing its earnings forecast.

Unless you enjoy risk, avoid the bricks-and-mortar retail industry. As e-commerce companies such as Amazon revolutionize the way people shop, there's simply too much uncertainty.

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The author is an independent contributor who at the time of publication owned none of the stocks mentioned.