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2015 Acquisitions
18 Jan, 2016 • Helen Thomas
There were 12 major retail acquisitions in 2015 in the apparel specialty, department and shoe store industries. See below for the details including the effective date and the number of units.
Cool Start to Retail Spending Predicted in January
13 Jan, 2016 • Helen Thomas
With many Americans suffering from a holiday-spending hangover, it’s not surprising when we see a lull in spending in January. Coupled with abnormal weather conditions across the country and an uncertain economy, consumer spending is likely off to a slow start this month. The Chain Store Guide (CSG) Retail Spending Index saw its largest decrease... Read more »
Macy’s Cost-Cutting Initiative Means Fewer Stores and Jobs in New Year
07 Jan, 2016 • Helen Thomas
Disappointing holiday sales prompted iconic department store Macy’s Inc. to announce major cost-cutting moves on Wednesday. During November and December’s uncharacteristically warm weather, Macy’s same-store sales declined 4.7%. “The holiday selling season was challenging, as experienced throughout 2015 by much of the retailing industry,” said Macy’s chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren. “In the November/December period,... Read more »
Santa is Shopping with his desktop this year
15 Dec, 2015 • Helen Thomas
Consumers are shopping 6% more with their desktops this year versus last year, with desktop spending at $35.36 billion in the first 36 days of the shopping season (Nov 1- Dec 6). This figure sets a new record. Cyber Monday week saw $9.7 billion in desktop spending, up 7%. Spending reached $1 billion + per... Read more »
Vera Bradley Add Ecommerce expert to its board of directors
15 Dec, 2015 • Helen Thomas
Vera Bradley, Inc. has added Mary Lou Kelley to its Board of Directors, bringing extensive e-commerce experience with her. Kelley had served as President, E-Commerce of Best Buy since 2014. Prior to joining Best Buy, she served as SVP, E-Commerce for Chico’s and Marketing VP for L.L. Bean. Previously, she also held key marketing positions... Read more »
Q3 Earnings may be dim for some retailers, but the nrf states holiday shoppers are hitting the stores early this year
16 Nov, 2015 • Helen Thomas
The National Retail Federation’s Consumer Holiday Spending Survey shows that 56.6% of holiday shoppers already started shopping by early November, up from 54.4% in 2014. 60% of shoppers still plan to purchase apparel or accessories, 46.2% will buy books/CDs/video games, 41.2% will buy toys and 21.8% will purchase jewelry. Over 50% of those surveyed felt... Read more »
Analyzing Friday’s Labor Report
08 Nov, 2015 • Helen Thomas
Mark Twain famously said, “get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” As data analyst we have a responsibility to provide an accurate and complete picture when we poor through numbers and create reports. The labor report released on Friday provides a great example of an incomplete reporting of the facts.... Read more »
Current US spending increased slightly in october but still sits well below 12 month average; retail sepnding in october the lowest since august 2014
06 Nov, 2015 • Helen Thomas
The Consumer Spending Report (CSR) released in November indicates that consumer spending in October increased slightly by .9 points to close to 103 points, but still sits below the current twelve month average of 105.6. The overwhelming majority of consumers rated the economy as fair or poor, continuing this trend from September. Retail spending decreased... Read more »
Increase Sales by Managing Out of Stock Inventory
06 Nov, 2015 • Helen Thomas
What is an out of stock? A retail out of stock is when the inventory available on the shelf is either zero, or depending on the product category, when the inventory available for sale is less than the typical job lot quantity. Conceptually an out of stock is not difficult to understand and therefore one... Read more »