Growing Demand and Tight Supply Lifting Home Prices

A decade after the onset of the Great Recession, the national housing market has, by many measures, returned to normal, according to the latest State of the Nation’s Housing report, being released today by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Housing demand, home prices, and construction volumes are all on the rise, and… Read more »

Optimizing Inventory: 3 Ways Your POS Data Can Help

Nicole Leinbach Reyhle is the Founder and Publisher of Retail Minded, the Co-Founder of the Independent Retailer Conference and a regular contributor to various publications that include Entrepreuner.com.  Additionally, Reyhle is the Author of the book “Retail 101: The Guide to Managing and Marketing Your Retail Business” from McGraw-Hill and has been the Spokesperson for… Read more »

July 4th Shopping is All About Social Media

Retailers are taking advantage of the long holiday weekend to promote sales and specials, especially around sporting goods, BBQ supplies, consumer electronics and outdoor gear. Of shoppers surveyed by ChargeItSpot,  43% of shoppers are planning to shop this weekend looking for deals and 22% said they would be shopping for sporting goods. Of those shoppers,… Read more »

Westlake Ace Hardware Hits 100-Store Milestone

Two new Westlake Ace Hardware stores in Omaha, Nebraska, have brought the store total for this conglomerate of Ace Hardware Stores to 100. The stores were originally Q.P. Ace Hardware Stores, and they will be rebranded with the new ownership name, while keeping personnel the same. Q.P. Ace Hardware will continue to won four other… Read more »

Lowe’s Completes Acquisition for Maintenance Supply Headquarters

As part of an overall drive to broaden their relationship with pro customers and better serve their needs, Lowe’s Companies has finalized the acquisition of Maintenance Supply Headquarters for $512 million. The Houston-based company is a distributor of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products serving the multifamily housing industry. The deal is a next logical… Read more »

Inventory Shrink is Growing

The National Retail Federation (NRF) and the University of Florida announced it survey results of its National Retail Security Survey last week. Inventory shrink rose to $48.9 billion in 2016, from $45.2 billion in 2015. Thefts totaled 1.44% of sales, up from 1.38%. Retailers surveyed shared that 48.8% of them reported increases in inventory shrink.… Read more »

Consumers Still Value Offline Shopping

According to a recent study by Mood Media titled “The State of Brick and Mortar: 2017”. The study is based on a survey of more than 11,000 consumers in nine countries and sought to better understand what influences consumers’ decisions to choose brick-and-mortar over online shopping, what they most enjoy and don’t enjoy about the… Read more »

Early Back-to-School Forecast Predicts Good News for Retailers

According to eMarketer’s forecast, back-to-school retail sales will grow 4% over last year. During the core shopping season of July and August, back-to-school retail sales will account for approximately 17% of total retail sales for the year, and are projected to reach an estimated $857 billion in the U.S. in 2017. E-commerce continues to fuel… Read more »

Retail Imports Poised to Reach Record High This Summer

According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released late last week by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, retail import volume should hit an all-time high by the end of the summer. The rate of import growth at the nation’s major retail container ports has begun to slow after double-digit surges earlier this… Read more »