Levin’s mid-year survey reports optimism among retailers

North Plainfield, N.J. — Levin Management has released its annual June survey of store mangers within its 95-property, 13 million-sq. ft. shopping center portfolio.

According to the survey, 58.2% of respondents believe that adverse weather conditions during the first months of the year had a negative impact on sales. Even so, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that total retail sales for the period of March through May 2014 rose 4.3% from the same period a year ago.

Memorial Day weekend sales were up, with 49.5% of the store managers reporting sales the same or better than last year, up from 37.5% in the 2013 survey.

Looking forward, retailers report a positive outlook for the rest of 2014. More than half — 52% — of Levin’s respondents believe that sales will improve in the coming months. This represents a significant jump over last year’s survey, in which only 34.5% anticipated improving sales. Another 16.3% anticipate that sales will remain about the same during the second half of the year.

Hiring trends among the survey respondents mirror last year. Just over 33% in the mid-year 2014 and mid-year 2013 surveys indicated that they have increased store staff since January. Nearly 28% plan to add jobs during the second half of the year.

Store expansion plans are on the rise, too. At mid-year, 30.6% of respondents indicated that their company has or will open new stores in 2014, up significantly from 23.3% in 2013.

Technology has become important to Levin’s survey respondents. A vast majority — 86.5% — indicated active use of mobile apps, social media, email, texting and other tools to attract customers. That percentage is up slightly from the 85.1% of respondents in the 2013 survey. That said, a full 68.4% said they have increased technology use over the past year.

Levin will conduct its next retail sentiment survey in the fall, prior to the holiday shopping season.