Consumer Analytics

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending dropped 0.2% in April 2013, according to the Commerce Department.

It was the first monthly decline since May of last year and follows increases of 0.1% in March and 0.8% in February. Falling gas prices in April were part of the reason for the drop in spending, with purchases of gas, electricity and other energy goods and services down 4.4%.

In addition, increased Social Security deductions in consumer paychecks may have also contributed to the decline in spending.

Floor care, water filtration devices and air purifiers generate higher average prices online than in brick-and-mortar stores, according to research from NPD Group.

The research company’s Consumer Tracking Service, looking back at the 12 months ended March 2013, found that consumers are spending significantly more for these home environment cleaning appliances purchased online. 

New York -- Consumer sentiment for the week ended May 27 maintained a near five-year high level, according to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index on Thursday.

Crediting an improving economy and healing personal finances, Americans are expressing continued optimism, as the Index was at minus 29.7 in the period compared with minus 29.4 a week earlier. The margin of error for the figure is 3 percentage points.

According to Bloomberg, views on the current state of the economy matched a mid-April reading as the strongest since January 2008.

San Francisco -- Parent company Williams-Sonoma said that its PBteen banner will open its first store in southern California, at The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, June 1.
 
The store will be anchored around a PBteen Design Lab, where teens and their parents can engage with the brand and its products by digitally creating a personalized room on a computer monitor. Using drag and drop technology, teens can experiment with different room configurations and color combinations and see it come to life on a television screen overhead.

Lyndhurst, N.J. -- Crossroads Cos. has been named leasing agent and property manager for Veterans Square Shopping Center, located on New York Avenue in Lyndhurst, N.J.

The 144,400-sq.-ft. neighborhood shopping center’s tenant roster includes a free-standing ShopRite, Home Goods and a mix of national, regional and neighborhood businesses.

Whiting, Ind. -- Survey results released Thursday by CouponCabin.com found that more than one-in-10 Americans say their shopping habits have put them in debt, with 20% saying the most amount of shopping debt they've been in exceeds $5,000.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, also revealed that 41% of U.S. adults have created shopping debt of more than $1,000. Eleven percent consider themselves to be shopaholics.

SEATTLE — Amazon has launched Login with Amazon, a new service that will enable the more than 200 million active Amazon customers to securely log in to apps, games and websites once without having to remember multiple passwords.

Login with Amazon allows developers to easily reduce sign-in friction for their customers, leading to higher engagement and order conversion.

Hicksville, N.Y. -- Footlocker was the most tweeted about brand with over 50,000 posts, according to GenSent Insights’ 2013 report on Sporting Goods and Outdoor Retailers. This was more than twice the number of tweets the next closest competitors, Dicks Sporting Goods and REI (generated with just under 20,000 posts each.  

Footlocker’s digital and social media strategy includes creating such properties as Sneakerpedia (a hub for sneaker enthusiasts) Kickstagram, (a photo sharing blog) and Footlocker Unlocked (blogs, games and more).

New York -- Consumer confidence climbed to the highest level in more than five years, according to The Conference Board. The group’s closely-watched sentiment index rose to 76.2 in May, the highest since February 2008, and up from a reading of 69.0 in April.

The expectations index jumped to 82.4 in May from 74.3 in April to mark the highest level in seven months. The present situation index rose to 66.7 from 61.0. The share of consumers expecting more jobs to open in the next six months increased to a five-month high.

New York -- Tiffany & Co.’s net income rose a better-than-expected 3% to $83.6 million in its first quarter, up from the prior year’s $81.5 million, boosted by sales improvement across all its regions, particularly Asia. Global same-store sales rose 8% during the quarter.

The earnings bump came on a 9% worldwide net sales increase to $895 million. In the Americas region, total sales rose 6% to $408 million. Same-store sales rose 3% with relatively stronger growth in the New York flagship store.