The outlook for consumer goods spending remains positive heading into the back-to-school season given signs from key economic and consumer indicators—including mostly healthy retail sales by channel. The signs for the short term are distilled from the data storyboard below, which…
The U.S. retail sales trend in 2018 suddenly looks stronger as a result of a healthy month of May and upward revisions to prior months as reported by the government. Sales are up about 4.5% year-to-year for the first five months….
Outside of ecommerce sales, furniture and furnishings is a lone bright spot among retail spending that is settling back into a modest pace of year-to-year growth in the wake of a strong holiday. Ecommerce sales are sustaining strong growth of 15%…
Adjusting for the impact of an early Easter this year, consumers’ retail spending through March remains slower than the strong November-December holiday period. The slowdown is in retail sales excluding autos, fuel, and restaurant. Taking a toll on sales are higher…
Retail sales through February show clearer signs of a letup from a strong holiday. Most notably, sales show a pronounced letup from the strong November start to the holiday. From year-to-year gains that peaked near 6% in November, growth has slowed…
The ecommerce impact on the strong holiday is clearer in the latest retail data: In-store holiday sales improved despite the strongest ecommerce gains in six years. The data also give a sign—albeit mixed—of a January letup from the holiday gains, which…
Holiday sales for November-December approached a 6% gain, which outpaced forecasts of a better holiday and year-ago performance by as much as two percentage points or more. The strength was evident across all types of brick and mortar stores—not just online….