Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Washington, D.C. – Spurred by warmer spring weather, U.S. retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, increased 0.8% adjusted month-to-month in March and 1.6% unadjusted year-over-year, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation (NRF).

HSN recognized the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud from salesforce.com (CRM) as its “Strategic Digital Alliance” partner for the year for transforming the company’s digital marketing program. The company was honored at HSN’s 4th annual awards gala in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Boston – Email remarketing to online customers who visit e-commerce sites but do not make a purchase can significantly boost conversion and revenue rates for online retailers. According to a new report from the SeeWhy Conversion Academy analyzing 80 Demandware-based e-commerce sites, “The ROI of Email Remarketing for E-commerce and Brands,” on average, 97% of visitors to e-commerce sites don’t make a purchase.

New York -- March was a so-so month for retailers, whose performance was impacted by unspring-like, cold temperatures in many parts of the country and a late Easter. (Easter falls on April 20 this year as opposed to March 31 last year.)

The eight retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters posted a 2.2% increase in March same-store sales, better than the expected 1.4% increase.

New York -- Increasing tax burdens (76%) are the top concern of retail CEOs, according to PwC’s 17th Annual Global CEO Survey. Worries about the tax burden were followed by the government response to the fiscal deficit and debt burden (74%), over-regulation (69%), the high and volatile prices of raw materials (68%), and exchange rate volatility (64%).

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart will carry Wild Oats organic food items later in April with a new, more affordable price point on products covering a broad variety of categories. Wal-Mart estimates customers will save 25% or more when comparing Wild Oats to national brand organic products.

Foster City, Calif. - American households with teens are reining in prom spending in 2014. According to a new survey of 4,000 consumers by Visa, the American average household will spend $978 in 2014 on the prom.

That's down more than 14% from the average $1,139 families spent on items including attire, limousine rental, tickets, and dinner in 2013. The sharp decrease follows three years of steady increases. By way of comparison, Canadian households will spend about 25% less than American households, at $723.

Washington, D.C. -- The average American celebrating the Easter holiday in 2014 will spend an average of $137.46 on apparel, food, candy, gifts and more. According to the National Retail Federation’s Easter Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, this is slightly less than the $145.13 spent last year.