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Consumer confidence rose to 122.9 in the August Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, up from 120 in July. Consumers finding business conditions to be “good” increased 2%, to 34.5%. Consumers also assessed that the labor market was improved, rating jobs are “plentiful” at 35.4%. Those claiming jobs were “hard to get” decreased from 18.7% to... Read more »

With the devastation in Texas from Hurricane Harvey comes help from the two home improvement center giants. The Home Depot Foundation donated $300,000 to the Red Cross, and in its corporate home of Atlanta, the retailer opened its Disaster Response Command Center. Their merchandising, operations and supply chain teams are continuously sending products to stores... Read more »

Accelerated Analytics customers who sell their products at The Home Depot saw their second quarter comp sales increase 11% over last year! That’s nearly double the results reported by The Home Depot when they recently released their second quarter results. In a blog post on August 15th, we shared The Home Depot’s Q2 results which... Read more »

Despite ever-growing announcements of store-closings and retail layoffs, there’s one retail job that is still in high demand: data scientist. With the explosion of e-commerce, brick-and-mortar stores are facing increased pressure to deliver an exceptional shopping experience to their customers; they have to find new ways to compete. U.S. consumers still make about 85% of... Read more »

Progressive Media Group, Inc. (PMG360) announced today the acquisition of the EC-BP.com website and newsletter which will relaunch as Supply Chain Technology News serving more than 80,000 supply chain decision makers. The relaunch will expand the editorial focus beyond EDI. Supply Chain Technology News will encompass the full gamut of supply chain practices and technologies.... Read more »

Canadian Tire posted its second quarter results this week, beating analyst expectations. Revenue rose 2% to $3.4 billion from $3.3 billion last year. The DIY retailer’s shares rose from $2.46 per share to $2.81. April and May results did not help the quarter, mainly due to weather and the effect on seasonal products. However, Canadian... Read more »

Four major department stores reported Q2 results this week. Dillard’s reported net income of $49.2 million for the quarter, compared to $89.5 million in Q1. While that is a significant drop from quarter to quarter, year over year net sales were close, with $1.427 billion this year compared to $1.452 billion in 2016. Comp store... Read more »

The Wall Street Journal announced this week that Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies has reported an expectation of American spending on home improvements this year to top $316 billion. This latest boom in spending is being driven mostly by two groups on opposite ends of the age spectrum: baby boomers and millennials. Increasing... Read more »

Forrester announced retail sales results just as the first half of an NRF/4-5-4/4-4-5 2017 season has come to a close. For most retailers, this week marks the first for the fall season/second half of the 2017 retail year. The news seems abundant about retail stores closings, missed sales targets and retail executives not getting bonuses,... Read more »