Retail Stores

Americans spent more money over the 2022 holiday season than they did the year before despite higher rates of inflation, a new Mastercard SpendingPulse report shows. The report, published Dec. 26, measured U.S. retail sales — excluding automotive sales — between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, 2022. It found sales increased 7.6 percent over the same period…

Over 189 million people, or over 73 percent of U.S. consumers, shopped this past Saturday (also known as Super Saturday), according to a survey conducted by ICSC. The data show 71 percent of shoppers spent money on holiday gifts, while 40 percent spent on dining and 22 percent spent on entertainment. The top reason consumers shopped on Super Saturday was…

Consumers pulled back on spending in November, failing to keep up with even a muted level of inflation for the month, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Retail sales for the month declined 0.6 percent, even worse than the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.3 percent drop. Measures that exclude autos and both autos and gas sales both…

Will retailers’ holidays be happy this year? Yes, but… On the plus side, more than half of U.S. shoppers surveyed by McKinsey (55 percent) feel excitement about the prospect of buying holiday gifts. Still, surging energy costs have the potential to drag down retailers’ bottom lines during the important holiday period — amplifying the impacts…

Claire's, known for its youth-inspired jewelry, accessories and ear-piercing services, announced Tuesday that it would open stores within several Macy's locations. The more-than-20 Claire's stores within Macy's will open starting this month, according to a press release by the two companies. Locations will include a few flagships, including Herald Square and Roosevelt Field in New…

Consumers spent a record $9.12 billion online shopping during Black Friday this year, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks sales on retailers’ websites. Overall, online Black Friday sales were up 2.3 percent year-over-year. Adobe also predicted that consumers were set to spend more than $9 billion online over the weekend ($4.52 billion on Saturday, $4.99 billion…

Shoppers were expected to turn out in record numbers to shop for Black Friday deals, particularly as concerns of COVID-19 have subsided. However, with inclement weather in parts of the country, thin crowds were seen outside stores on what has historically been the busiest shopping day of the year. At Times Square in New York…

An estimated 166.3 million people are planning to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. This figure is almost 8 million more people than last year and is the highest estimate since NRF began tracking…

It’s been long established that music has the power to stir emotion and influence consumer behavior. In 1973, business professor Philip Kotler first addressed the science of sound in retail when he coined the term “atmospherics” for the practice of designing store environments to project a specific image and induce certain behaviors. In an article…

Despite high inflation and rising interest rates, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said last week it expects healthy holiday sales thanks to things such as job growth, salary increases, and higher savings rates. More specifically, NRF forecasts that holiday sales will rise between 6 percent and 8 percent this year compared to 2021, reaching between $942.6 billion…