Research Topic

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).

Warmer spring weather spurred continued consumer spending and activity this March. According to the National Retail Federation, March retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, increased 0.8% adjusted month-to-month and 1.6% unadjusted year-over-year.

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.

New York – Total U.S. retail sales during 2013 reportedly reached $4.53 trillion, a 4.2% increase from$4.35 billion in 2012. According to new data from EMarketer, e-commerce sales of $263.3 billion, up 16.9% from $225.3 billion the prior year, helped drive overall retail sales growth.

Non-e-commerce sales totaled about $4.27 billion, a 3.5% increase from $4.12 billion in 2012. In 2014, EMarketer predicts that e-commerce sales in rhe U.S. will grow 15.5% to total $304.1 billion, or 6.4% of total retail sales of $4.73 billion.

Because the Easter holiday is in April this year rather than in March as it was last year, Gap already expected March to be a challenging month performance-wise.  

The retailer reported net sales of $1.5 billion for the five-week period ended April 5. Comparable sales for March were down 6% versus a 1 % decrease last year.

“While March performance has been challenging, we remain confident in the opportunities ahead,” said chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy. “We are pleased to reaffirm our full-year EPS guidance range.”

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.

Union, N.J. – Bed, Bath & Beyond met Wall Street expectations with falling net earnings during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. Compared to the same period a year earlier, net earnings dropped 11% to $333.3 million, from $373.87 million.

Net sales fell 6% to $3.2 billion, from $3.4 billion. In one bright spot, same-store sales rose 1.7%. Bed, Bath & Beyond attributed some of its net earnings decline to disruptive weather in the fourth quarter.

Southfield, Mich. -- Kris Abrahamson has been named as VP retail consultancy of shopper marketing agency The Mars Agency. Abrahamson has more than 20 years experience in the consumer packaged goods industry and was most recently the senior director of innovation with PepsiCo's Global Nutrition Group.

As part of the retail consultancy group, she will drive strategic growth initiatives against The Mars Agency's clients' key retailers and lead innovation initiatives that will address evolving shopping behaviors affecting retailers today and in the future.

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.