NRF Forecasts an Average Holiday Season

October 14, 2011 By

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is expecting this year’s holiday season to be just average. Although last year’s holiday season outperformed most analysts’ expectations, NRF expects 2011 holiday retail sales to increase 2.8 percent to $465.6 billion, close to the 10-year average holiday sales increase of 2.6 percent. Last year, retailers experienced a 5.2 percent increase.

For the first time this year, NRF used its holiday forecasting model to create a projection for seasonal hiring in retail. According to NRF, retailers are expected to hire between 480,000 and 500,000 seasonal workers this holiday season, which is comparable to the 495,000 seasonal employees they hired last year.

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July Retail Sales Increase Year-Over-Year for Back-to-School Season

August 16, 2010 By

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), as back-to-school sales start, retail industry sales for July (excluding automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) increased 3.1 percent unadjusted year-over-year. Retail industry sales also declined 0.2 percent seasonally adjusted month-to-month.

July retail sales released by the U.S. Commerce Department show that total retail sales (including non-general merchandise categories such as automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) increased 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted from June and increased 5.4 percent unadjusted year-over-year.

Back-to-school related categories also saw year-over-year gains, according to the NRF. Clothing and accessories stores were up 4.7 percent over last July, but declined 0.7 percent from June. Electronics and appliance stores increased 8.1 percent year-over-year and declined 0.1 percent from last month. Furniture and home furnishing stores increased 0.4 percent from the same period a year ago and declined 0.3 percent from June.

A survey conducted by NRF, released in July, found that the average family of students in grades K-12 would spend $594.24 on back-to-school this year, an increase of 8.3 percent compared to $548.72 last year.

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Report: U.S. Retail e-Commerce to Grow Nearly 13 Percent

April 5, 2010 By

According to a revised eMarketer forecast, U.S. retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel, digital downloads, and event tickets) will grow by 12.7 percent in 2010 to $152.1 billion. eMarketer estimates that in 2014 online sales will reach $233.9 billion, with a growth rate of 8.2 percent due to “maturation of the online sales channel.” The revised forecast follows the U.S. Census Bureau’s recent news that online sales in Q4 2009 grew 14.6 percent compared to a year earlier, the biggest gain in eight quarters.

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