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The National Association of Realtors announced Wednesday that previously owned home sales in February grew 3% over the previous month. Sales versus February of last year were up 1.1%. This comes after a two month drop in sales in January and December. The change in February eases concerns that the housing market had peaked. However,... Read more »

February was a huge month for retail employment, seeing an increase of over 46,000 new jobs over January. This was four times greater than the amount of jobs added in January over December. General merchandise stores were up by 17,700 jobs. Clothing and accessory stores were up 14,900, and building materials stores added 10,300 jobs.... Read more »

L’Oreal, who utilizes Accelerated Analytics for its retailer point of sale data collection and harmonization for the majority of its US Luxe division retailers, revealed its 2017 results this week. Chairman and CEO, Jean-Paul Agon, spoke at a financial analysts’ meeting with specific results.  In the final quarter of the fiscal 2017 year, sales were... Read more »

The week of February 4 through February 10 kicked off the new 4-5-4 retail calendar year. 2017 ended with a 53rd week, which occurs every 4 years. Retailers reported $3.53 trillion in sales for 2017, up 3.9% over 2016. Retail industry experts are expecting this new 2018 retail year to do well. The NRF (National... Read more »

The retail industry suffered job losses in 2017, ending December with a 20% decrease in jobs in the retail trade. There was a lot of job expansion in other industries, with huge growth in construction and hospitality, with retail and utilities being the only to drop. The trend of decreasing retail jobs is being attributed... Read more »

Lowe’s is gearing up for Spring, adding 53,000 full time, part time and seasonal employees to its current 250,000. Lowe’s offers its employees a lot of benefits, even to those who are seasonal or part time in most cases. They provide a 10% employee discount, competitive wages, flex hours and the ability to see their... Read more »

Senior VP of Store Operations at The Home Depot, Marc Brown, joined a panel at the NRF’s Big Show this month to talk about the importance of engaging younger shoppers and the different methods they are undertaking to make that customer connection. The younger generation is particularly devoted to shopping at retailers who try to... Read more »

With improved employment levels and the housing market booming above 2006 levels, home improvement retail stocks have continued to grow. The Home Depot has outpaced the S&P 500 in the last 6 months, growing 39.3% versus the home improvement retail’s gain of 37.7% and S&P 500’s increase of 13.7%. The company attributes their success to... Read more »

Huge growth in fragrance and beauty is the largest contributor to the travel retail market, with wines and spirits coming in second. The current travel retail market was valued at $69.5 billion in 2016, and is predicted to reach $125.1 billion by 2023. Within perfumes and cosmetics, Accelerated Analytics customers including Estee Lauder and L’Oreal... Read more »