2010 March « RetailSails

Archive for March, 2010

RetailSails Is On Vacation

Published March 21, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

We are going to be taking a short break from posting, and will be back in about a week. In the meantime, here are some recent articles worth reading:

In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers: Retailers are striving to engineer a better experience for the consumer, and ultimately, higher sales for themselves. (NY Times)

Sizing Up Property, Mall Stores Try to Shrink: For two decades, mall-based apparel companies saturated the market, aggressively adding more stores and building them bigger. Chastened by the recession, however, retailers are poring over their holdings, looking for stores they can cut down to size. (Wall Street Journal)

Easter A Warm Welcome For Shoppers And Retailers: Consumers will spend slightly more for Easter this year than last, but spending is still down significantly from the peak. (National Retail Federation)

Online consumers each plan to spend a combined net average of $221.73 for Easter, or almost twice the amount for all consumers celebrating the holiday this year. (Shop.org)

Retailers Feeling Gutsy: National chains plan a huge number of store openings even though closures remain high. (Forbes)

Catalogs Increasingly Drive Online Sales: More than ever, people shop the catalog but buy on the retailer’s Web site. This form of cross-channel shopping marries the pleasure of catalog browsing with the self-service mentality of online buying. (Retail Customer Experience)

Wal-Mart to Expand Its Financial Services: years after a failed effort to obtain a bank charter, the company plans a 50% increase this year in the number of stores offering bank-like services. (Wall Street Journal)

Weekly Retail Sales Continue to Show Strength

Published March 16, 2010 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Tags: consumer spending, icsc, johnson redbook, retail sales, same-store sales

Though much of the East Coast was again pounded by severe storms this past weekend, warmer temperatures across much of the country drove strong sales in the early-to-middle part of the week, which helped offset the weekend softness. Department and Apparel stores saw significantly higher traffic compared to last year as mild temperatures led to strong demand for spring merchandise.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported that chain store sales slipped 0.4% from last week due to the weather-related slowdown over the weekend, but sales still managed a strong 3.2% gain compared to the year-ago period.

“Despite the wrath of Mother Nature in the Northeast, consumers were not deterred in unleashing a little of their own pent-up demand, especially early in the week-which helped to offset the weekend weather drag on sales,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC’s chief economist. “As the industry heads into the last two weeks of the month retailers should see a lift from the earlier Easter that may further accentuate the uptick for the month of March.” Continue reading ‘Weekly Retail Sales Continue to Show Strength’

Friday’s Retail Reading List

Published March 12, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: consumer spending, retail

After a 2009 marked by heavy discounting and inventory liquidation, some retailers are starting to get their swagger—and pricing power—back (WSJ)

Interbrand Design Forum Ranks the Most Valuable US Retail Brands; Walmart Remains the Top Retailer, Target Leaps to 2nd (Interbrand)

The global mobile retail market is expected to top $12 billion by 2014 (Retailer Daily)

U.S. retailers must focus on three distinct types of shoppers rather than traditional demographics to drive growth (Reuters)

Online retail sales will grow by 10% a year for the next five years, and the web will influence 53% of U.S. retail sales by 2014 (Internet Retailer)

E-tailers Seek Revenue Boost From Ads That May Even Tout Rivals (Advertising Age)

Hard Times Turn Coupon Clipping Into the Newest Extreme Sport (WSJ)

Scarred by the Great Recession and embracing frugality, the new consumer is different from the one retailers knew and loved way back in, oh, 2006 (bNet)

Retail Sales Post 4th Consecutive Gain in February

Published March 12, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: consumer sentiment, consumer spending, retail sales, us department of commerce

The U.S. Department of Commerce released February retail sales this morning, reporting that sales rose an adjusted 0.3% from January and increased 4.1% (unadjusted) from the year-ago period. Analysts had expected the unseasonably cold weather and severe snowstorms across the East Coast to impact performance, but it appears spending held up relatively well. This was the fourth consecutive year-on-year gain after 15 straight monthly declines:

However, the gains are more representative of the extremely easy comparisons from last winter, when overall sales tumbled 8.8%, 8.4%, and 11.6% in December, January, and February respectively. Total sales for the month were still down 8.0% from February 2008 and 1.9% from February 2007. To put in perspective how absolutely dismal 2009 was, consider that in the previous 15+ years, from January 1993 through August 2008, there were a total of only 2 months in which YoY decreases were reported: Continue reading ‘Retail Sales Post 4th Consecutive Gain in February’

Weekly Retail Sales: March Starts Off Strong

Published March 9, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: icsc, johnson redbook, retail sales, same-store sales

Retail sales were relatively strong this past week, as dry weather and warming temperatures across much of the country spurred markedly higher customer traffic compared to a year ago. The first week of March is notoriously light on volume and retailers continue to benefit from easy year-over-year comparisons, but nonetheless results show that the positive momentum we have seen since September continues.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported that chain store sales saw the strongest gains in years for the first week of March, as sales increased 2.9% from the prior week (best since Dec 2001) and gained 3.4% over the prior-year period, which was the best year-over-year showing since July 2007. “To paraphrase the old saw, March sales started off like a lion as better weather got consumers motivated about spring-related merchandise,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC’s chief economist.

The company said Weather Trends International (WTI) reported that the week was the 2nd driest to start a March in 18 years. WTI observed that, “The northern third of the country actually had the most improved conditions with much warmer and drier weather while the South actually had a continuation of cool conditions. The weekend was the warmest part of the week which was a plus for early Spring merchandise sales.” Continue reading ‘Weekly Retail Sales: March Starts Off Strong’