Data & Analytics

New York -- The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index remained flat in February 2014, showing only a marginal change. The Index tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.

The Index, which comprises four components, tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices, ticked down slightly to 3.9 from 4.0 last month. Highlights of the Index include:

Tax Burden: The tax rate stayed at 11.8%, consistent with recent months.

By Dave Richards, Accenture

We shop almost every day – picking something up at the drug store or buying lunch, clothes shopping or getting groceries, looking for a gift or checking out a promotion – and we are doing this on the way to work, at work, at night while watching TV, online, at a store and increasingly across mobile devices. There is one thing that unites consumers in all of these instances: we expect the experience to be unified, personalized, constant, connected and, above all, seamless.
 

The growth of e-commerce contributed to an 8% increase in average daily FedEx Ground volume, but severe winter weather exacted a heavy toll on the company’s profitability.

Fremont, Calif. -- Men's Wearhouse is launching its omni-channel inventory program, which gives customers visibility and access to all merchandise within the company's distribution center and its 900-plus retail locations from one location. Now, regardless of whether a customer is shopping in a single store or online, they can see all merchandise available to them throughout the company and pick up any item at the store of their choosing.

Pacific Sunwear overcame weak mall traffic and bad weather to log its eighth consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth with a 2% comp increase in the fourth quarter.

The teen and young adult retailer said sales from continuing operations during the quarter ended Feb. 1 totaled $218.6 million compared to sales of $222.8 million during the fourth quarter the prior year, a period which included the benefit of an additional week which added sales of $9 million. PacSun ended its most recent fiscal year with 618 stores compared to 644 in the year earlier period.

San Diego – Nine-in-10 (91%) women conduct online research prior to making a purchase, and 92% are willing to pay more for competing products that receive positive online reviews. A new consumer survey from Interactions, “Retail Perceptions - The Power of Persuasion,” also found that 30% of women use a mobile device to conduct research and 37% of mobile users say they conduct research during their shopping trip.

Dallas — CBRE’s Private Capital Group has announced the sale of Josey Rosemeade Shopping Center, an unanchored strip center in Carrollton, Texas.

Located just northwest of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area in an affluent, densely populated area, the 14,500-sq.-ft. center received more than 20 offers.

Colorado Springs, Colo. - Accellos, Inc. is launching a new website dedicated toward the unique needs of home goods retailers located at Profitsystems.com. Profitsystems, recently acquired by Accellos in November 2013 and based out of Colorado Springs, Colo., a retail inventory and point of sale system software provider for home goods retailers.