Section 3 : Consumer Trends
I found some information about retail sales and therefore consumer spending and trends.
Retail sales growth slowed because of tough economic conditions and because of a weaker housing market during 2009 and 2010. However, in July 2011, the US consumer spending demonstrated that retail sales augmented 2.8% for nondurable goods compared to the percentage of sales in July 2010. Another indicator of consumer trends is the increase of 8.3 % of total US retail sales in the first 8 months of this year (“Retail Sector,” 2011). For example Home Depot, ranked #1 major home improvement company, rose 3% on sales even though a weaker housing market has affected it, and Macy’s, ranked #1 major department store, raised its sale’s income by 5.7% (Schulz, 2011).
Another important consumer trend that affects US retail sales is tourism spending, which rose 4.7% during the first quarter of 2011 compared to 2010 (“Retail Sector,” 2011). The Internet retail sector is being affected by consumer trends as well. A popular Internet consumer trend is the use of a tablet as a more effective tool to buy online. Retailers like Macy’s report that tablet users place bigger and more expensive orders, adding 10 to 20% more to the cost, compared to shoppers that use a PC or a smartphone. Tablets and mobile device consumer spending represent 3% or 4.5 billion dollars of consumer online spending and it is expected to rise. (Mattioli, 2011).
It seems as if consumers are regaining confidence and stability in their income as the economy improves. Companies respond to these consumer trends. Therefore, these companies that are gaining money through online retailing are going to improve their online retailing by making the sites "tablet friendly".
Links:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204010604576597151983657300.html?KEYWORDS=Tablet%3A+ultimate+buying+machines - Tablets: Ultimate Buying Machines
http://subscriber.hoovers.com/H/industry360/overview.html?industryId=151
http://www.stores.org/STORES%20Magazine%20July%202011/home-improvement
http://www.stores.org/STORES%20Magazine%20July%202011/department-stores
I find some of those statistics very interesting. I'm surprised that the Internet retail sector is being affected by consumer trends as well. I would think that the internet would be selling more goods vs the stores because when people think of getting something cheeper, i'd think the internet would be the place they go.
ReplyDeleteI think Carlos made some really excellent points here about consumer trends. First, I found it really interesting the statistic about Home Depot actually increasing sales during the housing crisis. I think Home Depot would be a really interesintg company to look in to and see why these trends occured and why they didn't lose sales as housing took a hit. Next, I think the point about tablets was really interesting as well. The fact that sales are being increased by 10-20% of the cost is a huge indicator of the power of technology in todays market. While tablets seem to be centered around the technolody industry, they are becoming extremely important to retail as well and I think Carlos made a great point in bringing this up.
ReplyDeleteThat was a really good point about the housing market and how that had shown a decline which showed that retail took a step backward as well. It is good that the market then started to grow by 2011.
ReplyDeleteToday, it is such a huge market for the consumer spending and trend showing in the e-commerce area. The internet has really helped bump up sales for companies and shown improvement for retailers. This has definitely been a positive.
Falen