Seasonal

Temperatures for the U.S. will trend the warmest in at least five years.    August begins with an active pattern along the East Coast with showers and thunderstorms. Heat will be building across the Central U.S. with a heat wave likely developing in the first week of August. The heat spreads to the East Coast later in the week. Another heat wave during the second retail week of the month will keep it feeling firmly like summer.   

Online retail giant Amazon is not looking for a repeat of holiday 2015, when increased fulfillment costs due to a surge in orders took a bite out of its holiday quarter earnings.   The company is adding 18 warehouse facilities this quarter in preparation for the holiday surge, according to a report by Recode. Last year, it added six.  

With home prices on the rise, consumers are once again investing in remodeling and repair projects.

At least one retail industry participant is expecting the 2016 holiday season to be prosperous.   Omnichannel commerce technology and services provider Radial plans to hire an additional 550 workers in Reno, Nevada to support an expected 10-fold increase in demand during the upcoming holiday season. Radial operates fulfillment centers in Reno, which are in need of workers to help support its retail clients.  

The Hershey Company is moving its popular store in Manhattan’s Times Square to a much larger location.   The company will unveil a new Hershey’s Chocolate World flagship at 20 Times Square in late 2017. The new store will be three times larger than the existing Hershey’s store, which has been a major tourist attraction since it opened in 2002. It will also feature even more bells and whistles, including a state-of-the-art digital billboard.  

As the holiday shopping season rapidly approaches for marketers, a brand’s biggest challenge is to rise above the marketing noise and extend consumer engagement in ways that lead to purchase. How can you reward consumers while creating longer-term stickiness? Here are some of our favorite ways to drive return visits, increase brand-shopper interaction, and get on consumers’ nice lists this holiday season.   Holiday Gift Calendars

The advent of the back-to-school shopping season is expected to affect import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports.   According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates, import cargo volume will see a small, but significant, increase in July due to retailers stocking up for back-to-school shoppers. A larger wave of imports is expected to pass through U.S. ports in later summer and early fall as retailers prepare for the end-of-year holiday season.

Market Track compared retail circular advertising in June 2016 vs. June 2015 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains.    Kroger increased their total circular pages by nearly 42% in June. Whereas in 2015 their 6/28 circular featured a handful of deals on patio furniture and accessories, their 6/29 circular this year featured a July 4th theme with several pages dedicated to grilling proteins, grilling accessories, patio equipment, and other holiday food and drink categories.