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The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported today that Canadians are spending more on clothing, footwear and accessories. Statistics Canada released a report that total retail sales in the clothing segment totaled $41.9 billion in 2015, a 38% increase from a decade ago. During that decade, many retailers exited the Canadian retail market, such as Maxx... Read more »

Vera Bradley has plans to open a pop-up shop in NYC, replacing a shop occupied by Kate Spade through the end of last May. Opening in September, the pop-up shop will be 2,700 square feet over 2 stories and will carry the entire Vera Bradley collection. The store will also be the grand debut of... Read more »

Beginning this fall in Lowe’s locations in the Bay Area, customers will have a new resource to answer their simple questions. Meet the LoweBot. A NAVii autonomous retail service robot that will be rolling out in 10 stores over the next 7 months. The LoweBot will be capable of scanning inventory and capturing real-time data,... Read more »

In an effort to get out of this year’s retail doldrums, department store retailers have been reducing prices on fashion brands they typically do not run promotions on. Promotions reached an all-time high in the last quarter, and in July over 2,000 emails advertising specials were sent to shoppers across the US. Some prices in... Read more »

Even before the Olympics started, the retail industry has experienced a big spike in athletic apparel. The growing popularity of “athleisure” clothing have helped athletic apparel see an increase this year of 14% to $45.7 billion as of the end of May. Now the Olympics are in full swing, and the athletes are all decked... Read more »

Back to School sales helped raise retail sales by .3% over the previous week and 2.5% over one year ago, following a four-week decline in June into July. Expectations are that Back to School sales will rise another 2.5% from July through September, which will be a successful repeat of the 2015 season. Discounters and... Read more »

Today’s $80 billion US beauty market will continue to grow according to a report by Euromonitor International. This growth rate will mean the beauty market will grow by 45% in 10 years. In 2015, the premium beauty category grew 7%, with premium foundation sales increasing 14.2%, compared to just 3% the prior year. Consumers have... Read more »

Department stores and general merchandise stores helped June have a strong increase in retail sales. Department stores rose .7% to $13.2 billion and general merchandise stores rose .4% to $56.1 billion. Overall, retail sales rose .6% in June, to $457 billion, above economists’ expectations for the month. “June’s retail sales grew at a solid pace... Read more »

After the housing crash of 2006, the US home remodeling market saw its worst downturn in history. Growth in home improvement spending has grown on average about 4.9% since then. Now, with home equity back and home prices on the rise, people are putting their cash to work to remodel and repair their homes. Growth... Read more »