Successful execution on an omnichannel strategy is no longer enough for middle market retailers. Yes, it’s important to meet and sell to clients where they are whether it’s in a store or online, but it’s also essential for retailers that these channel efforts be profitable, especially amid this year’s demanding and highly competitive holiday shopping ... READ MORE >
Consumer Products
From retail to restaurants, the consumer products industry includes many sectors and subsectors. The industry also involves many well-known brands with loyal customers and employees, and ownership structures ranging from family-owned businesses to public and private equity-backed companies.
Consumers signal strong start to holiday spending; how will it end?
The increase in October retail sales at 1.7% month over month beat estimates of 1.4%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For further perspective and to reduce the noise and focus on holiday season sales, we saw a 12.9% increase year over year for retail sales, excluding food services, gas, building materials and motor vehicles. This showing highlights the ... READ MORE >
Consumer products holiday season countdown: Where will they shop?
As we move closer to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the traditional peak holiday shopping season, where consumers plan to complete their holiday shopping has been a topic of discussion from retailers to analysts. As noted by the National Retail Federation, holiday sales this year are anticipated to grow between 8.5% and 10.5% from last year's records. ... READ MORE >
Consumer products holiday season countdown: Help wanted
All industries are grappling with labor shortages and the retail sector is no different. Most retailers have already started ramping up for the holiday shopping season as consumers begin their holiday spending earlier and earlier each year. For instance, at the end of September, according to Bloomberg, Macy’s anticipated hiring 48,000 holiday employees and ... READ MORE >
Personal spending grew in September despite mitigating factors
Personal spending grew in September for the second straight month as the extra income from the enhanced Child Tax Credit program continued to offset the impact from the delta variant on consumption demand. The headline spending number rose 0.6% on the month, following an upwardly revised 1.0% in August, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis report ... READ MORE >
Consumer products holiday season countdown: What will they buy?
Consumer behavior has never been more diverse, volatile and difficult to predict this holiday season. However, as consumers navigate an evolving landscape of mask and vaccine mandates, localized outbreaks and school re-openings, some trends have begun to emerge. Some at-home trends have begun to reverse Sales growth for athletic apparel and footwear has ... READ MORE >
Canada retail sales climbed in August as in-person activities picked up
Canada retail sales rose by 2.1% to CA$57.2 billion in August due to increases in both prices and volume of goods sold, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Friday, a promising sign for the country's economic recovery. This increase was observed across all provinces in the first full month after provinces lifted restrictions designed to ... READ MORE >
Consumer products holiday season countdown: Shopping has already started
For the second year in a row, we expect the pandemic to set the tone for the holiday season. In 2020, retailers and consumer companies throughout the supply chain were forced to start competing for holiday dollars earlier, with Amazon moving its Prime Day, their annual deal event for members, from July to October, which kicked off a season that saw ... READ MORE >
Food sales remain steady as we move into fall
While top-line retail sales data for September increased by 0.7%, beating analyst expectations of a 0.2% decline, food-focused categories remained only slightly up from August. Grocery sales were up by 0.7%, and restaurants, a proxy of food and drink places, were up 0.3%. The relatively flat numbers reflect consumers remaining in a holding pattern coming ... READ MORE >
Retail sales defied expectations, continuing to rise in September
Retail sales defied expectations in September, rising in back-to-back months and highlighting the resilience in consumer spending amid supply shortages and the surge of the delta variant. Such strong sales numbers helped to offset some of the impact from rising prices in the Consumer Price Index for September released earlier this week. We continued to ... READ MORE >