This holiday season, retailers face a unique set of challenges that will test their adaptability, resilience and innovation to the fullest. With consumer behaviors likely to remain uncertain and volatile, retailers are having to display ever greater levels of agility and responsiveness to keep pace. For many people, times are tough right now. Consumers are
NEW YORK — One of the ways consumers are coping with inflation is by purchasing more store brand products. That’s good news for retailers, who are upping the profile and quality of their own brand products to try to ensure that customers who try their products continue to buy them even when the economic climate
This holiday season, shoppers are getting organized. How can retailers respond? With the peak holiday season fast approaching, rising prices and fluctuating stock levels wouldn’t have been on any shopper’s — or any retailer’s — wish list. However, while U.S. consumers are undoubtedly taking steps to organize their seasonal shopping more carefully this year, retailers
NEW YORK — Reports on the retail outlook ahead of the crucial year-end holidays have found shoppers feeling thrifty as inflation pushes up prices for groceries and other daily essentials. The mood has retailers preparing for modest growth in holiday sales, with gains driven largely by inflation. “This holiday retail season is bound to be
For the first time since 1969, the White House convened a conference on hunger, nutrition and health. The meeting, which late last month brought together government officials and leaders from the business, civic, philanthropic and academic sectors, was intended to put the country on course to achieve two of President Biden’s major objectives — ending
WASHINGTON — Omicron, inflation and bad weather in much of the country were not enough to stop consumers from shopping in January, according to figures from the Census Bureau and the National Retail Federation (NRF). Retail sales posted strong gains in January despite those and other challenges. “January’s numbers show that 2022 is starting very
Consumers care more about sustainability than retailers think they do, a new report suggests. But that doesn’t mean that retailers are ignoring the issue. First Insight conducted a study, in partnership with the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, that polled both consumers and retail executives. It found that
NEW YORK — The nation’s largest retailers have announced plans to increase payrolls as they gear up for the holiday season. Walmart intends to add 20,000 employees to support its e-commerce business and to help with the holiday rush. Dollar General has announced plans to hire 50,000 employees in the coming weeks, with many of
NEW YORK — With the COVID-19 pandemic resurging across the country, retailers are beginning to reactivate measures to protect both their customers and employees from infection. The actions are taking place against a background of soaring cases, hospitalizations and deaths as new, more lethal variants wreak havoc among the large numbers of unvaccinated in the
To meet consumer needs, retailers must go beyond functional over-specialization, freeing merchants to see a bigger picture. Consumers, we all know, want a frictionless experience across all touchpoints. They’re increasingly intolerant of out-of-stocks. They’ve become empowered, thanks to revolutions driven by digital technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic. Retailers, we all know, must become even more
WASHINGTON — Retailers welcomed the passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Biden on March 11, paving the way for the first wave of $1,400 coronavirus stimulus payments to millions of Americans. Retailers also applauded language in the legislation aimed at accelerating the pace at which Americans are vaccinated
The nightmare is that Halloween will prove scarier than usual this year, for retailers at least. Will the threat of a second wave of COVID-19 infections frighten away trick-or-treaters? If so, that could hurt sales of candy, of course, but also of costumes and home decorations. Especially if Halloween parties are another casualty of the