Click below to see full-size graphic showing holiday retail sales performance at 57 American chains. Data represents the 9 week November-December period unless otherwise noted. We will update this scorecard as more retailers report:
Posts Tagged 'holiday shopping season'
By the Numbers: Holiday Same-Store Sales Scorecard
Published January 9, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: holiday shopping season, retail sales, retail trends, same-store sales
December Comp Preview Conference Call
Published January 3, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: holiday shopping season, retail sales, retail trends, same-store sales
Happy New Year! We are anxiously awaiting monthly sales reports from about 25 retailers – Reuters expects a composite same-store sales gain of 4.3% for December – as always we will have complete coverage on Thursday morning.
In addition, a bunch of other chains that typically only release results quarterly will provide insights into holiday performance over the next week or so, including Best Buy, GameStop, Tiffany, Toys ‘R’ Us and Urban Outfitters.
In anticipation, we will be hosting a free live conference call tomorrow morning at 11:30 to preview December comps and talk about our observations regarding the holiday retail season. See details below if you are interested in joining, or check back later tomorrow for a recording of the call.
Conference Call Details
Time: Wednesday, Jan 4th 11:30AM EST
Dial-In: (218) 632-0550
Participant Access Code: 621797#
Wednesday News & Notes
Published December 28, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: chain store sales, ecommerce, holiday shopping season, retail news, retail trends
Chain store sales remained strong in the week leading up to Christmas, helped by an extra shopping day compared to last year. Overall, the season is trending about a percentage point ahead of expectations, but unseasonably warm weather and deeper than planned discounts likely means margin contraction will be more severe than expected when chains report Q4 results.
The ICSC reported that chain store sales rose 0.9% from the prior week and increased 4.5% over the prior-year period during the week ending Dec 24th, and continues to expect an overall November-December gain of 3.5% in shopping center-related sales.
“As expected, holiday shopping went down to the wire as consumers took advantage of the full shopping week ahead of Christmas Day, which fell on a Sunday this year,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC’s vice president of research and chief economist. ”Overall this holiday season appears to have been a positive one for retailers, though there were some pockets of weakness. Looking ahead, the ICSC-Goldman Sachs consumer tracking survey suggests that consumer gift-card expenditures were higher than in recent years, which suggests gift-card redemption in the coming weeks could be stronger than in recent years too.”
Over the entire holiday season, consumers estimated that about two‐thirds of their purchases were in a store (62.4%), about one‐third (34.3%) was purchased online and 3.3% was purchased through a catalog.
E-commerce sales were the consistent bright spot throughout the season, with comScore reporting this morning that online holiday spending through Dec 26th jumped 15% to $35.3 billion compared to the same period in 2010. Continue reading ‘Wednesday News & Notes’
Christmas Reading List
Published December 23, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: holiday shopping season, retail news, retail trends
- Retailers Slashing Prices Ahead Of Holiday With Discounts Across Entire Stores Widespread (NY Times)
- Consumers Calling Best Buy the Grinch That Stole Christmas (AdAge)
- Infographic: Online Holiday Shopping 2011 – Social & Mobile Commerce Come Alive (Akamai)
- Don’t expect the mobile phone to replace the wallet anytime soon (IB Times)
- Top 10 Jewelry Retail Trends of 2011 (JCK)
- What happens when you bet the future on retail and shopping money dries up? (Huffington Post)
- Malls Pull Out All The Stops To Boost Holiday Sales (Retail Traffic)
- Retailers’ graveyard shift wins over shoppers, analysts (Reuters)
- Consumer spending rose less than expected in November on tepid income growth (MSNBC)
- Looking for every sale, retailers inject testosterone to lure male shoppers this holiday (Baltimore Sun)
- Amazon 2012: What the Future May Hold for the Web’s Largest Retailer (Mashable)
- Retailers wait for Facebook to deliver as f-commerce has so far been elusive (FT)
- Retailers try to thwart price-check apps to avoid becoming online showrooms (Chicago Tribune)
- Infographic: Flash Sales Become Virtual Outlet Stores (Multichannel Merchant)
- Retailers get the gift of an extra Saturday this holiday season (CNBC)
StoreIntel Research Alert: The Final Countdown
Published December 22, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: holiday shopping season, retail trends, storeintel
Department Stores: Macy’s (M), JC Penney (JCP), Kohl’s (KSS)
- Our channel checks as of today indicate a softening of sales and in particular considerable pressure coming from the women’s space across all departments from moderate through contemporary.
- The warm weather has only compounded the pressure in this zone. Our previous notes have indicated the weakness in the outerwear space and we believe this will continue to spread across additional cold weather categories. It will be interesting to see how aggressive discounting gets in this channel becomes after Christmas.
Specialty Chains
- Express (EXPR) - This is a name we continue to believe in due to the space it has carved out in the 22-30 year old deomgraphic. As of Wednesday, the sweater promotion of 30% off continues to drive traffic. We love their assortment with particular call out to the fine gauge category, which should allow them to still clear product even with the warm weather.
- Urban Outfitters (URBN) - The Urban brand as the company mentioned in mid-December seems to be experiencing strong sales. The product is different and has a great price-value relationship. The look of the Urban customer is quite unique which will allow them to separate themselves from the “three A’s” (Abercrombie, American Eagle & Aerospostale)…keep reading
