Prosper Insights predicts holiday winners and losers

Worthington, Ohio — Target, Kohl’s, Costco, Macy’s and Old Navy, with an honorable mention to J.C. Penney, are the holiday 2013 retail winners, according to business intelligence provider Prosper Insights & Analytics. The firm on Tuesday released its Holiday 2013 Retail Winners & Losers list at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference.

Prosper Insights noted that the terms “winners” and “losers” are relative with consumer spending expected to be down this year. Still, the company said, there are some bright spots this year: Retailers that have an effective omnichannel strategy, are promotion-heavy, and carry a strong consumer base of higher-spending Gen X’ers will likely perform better than others in a zero-sum game.

“Knowing who your consumers are and how they are feeling is even more critical when you are grasping for a smaller piece of the pie in an off holiday season,” said Pam Goodfellow, principal analyst and consumer insights director for Prosper. “We’ve identified a mix of key metrics that enables us to look at a holistic view of shoppers to predict which retailers may be positioned for a better holiday season this year.”

Holiday 2013 retail losers include Kmart, Walmart, Toys “R” US and Sam’s Club. In announcing its holiday losers, Prosper Insights noted some retailers have a customer base that is more susceptible to uncertain economic conditions, which will likely impact their outlook for the holiday season.