Boom Or Bust: What Is The Future Of The US Retail Industry?

ALLENTOWN, Pa., April 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Creditsafe USA today released the findings of an in-depth analysis of the US retail sector for Q1 2017.  Despite recent Chapter 11 filings by such notable retailers as Sports Authority and American Apparel and store closings by other retail heavy-weights such as Sears and JCPenny, the US retail sector as whole remains incredibly strong and shows no signs of slowing down.

"The Creditsafe Guide: Demystifying the US Retail Industry" looks at the overall health of US companies in the retail sector for the first quarter of 2017. When compared to other industries, the retail sector is the second largest in the United States in terms of the number of businesses, encompassing nearly 14%. It ranks third as far as the number of individuals employed by the sector with nearly 10% of the country's workforce.

"Our study reveals that while a number of the big retail players have experienced financial hardships, there is a huge portion of the retail sector that are performing very well," explained Matthew Debbage, CEO of Creditsafe USA and Asia.  "In today's retail landscape, the e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart are giving the traditional department stores a run for their money. Interestingly, however, it is the small companies with either less than 100 employees or sales less than $10M that are experiencing rapid growth. They are truly thriving."

Highlights of the report include:

**44% of retail companies are rated low risk compared to 42% of business in other industries

**12% lower instances of bankruptcy in the retail sector compared to business in other industries

"There is an apparent change happening within this sector, and companies that are embracing the change will become stronger. And, it's inherently clear things are still booming in the retail sector," added Debbage.

Creditsafe's global database is one of the most rapidly expanding and most comprehensive in the industry. It is updated over a million times a day with information gathered from over 200 sources. In 99.9% of the cases, reports requested by customers are delivered instantly online.  And, over 40% of Credisafe's customers, leverage the company's internationally reporting capabilities.

Creditsafe offers customers unlimited and open access to information and ratings on companies in every industry in almost every country. Each day, over 200,000 users around the world leverage the company's database to make over 450,000 business decisions.  Currently, Creditsafe has 14 offices around the world and maintains the only truly global international database of online credit information.  Globally, the company reported a 28 percent growth in revenue over the past twelve months.

About The Creditsafe Group
The Creditsafe Group is the world's most used supplier of company business intelligence, with ten Creditsafe Group reports downloaded every second. Privately owned and independently minded, Creditsafe is looking to change the way business information is used by providing high-quality data in an easy to use format that every-one in an organization can benefit from.

Founded in Norway in 1997, Creditsafe has offices in countries all over the world  including: the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands  and the United States. Globally, Creditsafe employs over 1,200 people and has more than 90,000 subscription customers. Three years ago, the Creditsafe Group opened  offices in the U.S. under the name Creditsafe, Inc. Its U.S. operations are headquartered in Allentown, Pa. with another facility in Phoenix, AZ. For more information, please visit www.creditsafe.com.

For more information, please contact:  [email protected]

In this analysis, Creditsafe used the following criteria:
**The US retail industry includes all companies with a two-digit North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) of 44

**An actively trading company or organization is one engaged in any business activity (business activity means carrying on a trade or profession, or buying and selling goods or services with a view to making a profit or surplus)
**A company is defined as a single physical location at which business is conducted. A business may consist of more than one physical location.

SOURCE Creditsafe USA