Resources

The NRF (National Retail Federation) hosted this year’s Retail Advocates Summit, which was visited by Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday. He promised that the best days for American retailers are ahead. More than 200 retail representatives from across the US attended the annual conference, held in Washington, D.C.. The main focus for the conference... Read more »

Retail sales fell in June overall, but not every segment of retail suffered. Sales at clothing and accessories stores decreased 0.1% in June and was unchanged in May. The decrease has been attributed to decreased pricing on products and low availability of inventory. Sporting goods stores also decreased in sales, by 0.6%. Online sales increased... Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 demand more home delivery when they shop online, and demand not to pay shipping fees when they do so. Retailers have been struggling to increase their e-commerce business while offsetting declining foot traffic to physical stores. It also requires them to compete heavily with Amazon.com. The holiday shopping season sees the highest amount of... Read more »