RetailNext Forecasts Modest 2.8 Percent Holiday Lift for Retailers

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- RetailNext Inc., the worldwide expert and leader in retail analytics for brick-and-mortar stores, today announced a positive forecast for U.S. retail performance over the November through December Holiday period, predicting a 2.8 percent year-over-year (YoY) lift in sales, driven in large part by a 16.2 percent increase in YoY sales through digital channels.

Based on retail trends and broader macro-economic data, RetailNext's forecast for U.S. retail stores during Holiday 2015 (November – December) includes:

• U.S. retail sales increase 2.8 percent overall YoY (excluding automobiles and petroleum)
  • Digital sales increase of 16.2 percent YoY
  • Brick-and-mortar sales varying widely by segment, with increases in electronics, fast fashion, outlets and warehouse/clubs, but decreases of 7-8 percent YoY across most others
  • The top seasonal performers will likely skew results; a few big winners among the majority of underperformers
• Digital sales grow from 10.5 percent to 11.9 percent of total retail sales
• Brick-and-mortar store traffic to fall 8.1 percent YoY, with conversion up 0.6 points and Sales per Shopper (SpS) up 3.5 percent

"Today's shopping journeys require retailers to seamlessly share knowledge internally between digital/mobile and physical channels to optimize sales for the enterprise," said Shelley E. Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at RetailNext. "Effectively implementing quick action strategies converging digital and physical channel experiences will build brand loyalty and drive sales, and more important than anything else, it will determine the retail industry's Holiday winners and losers."

RetailNext will once again this year publish its daily Thanksgiving Flash, a composite of key in-store retail metrics for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, designed to showcase macro retail performance and enable brick-and-mortar retailers to benchmark their performance. Based on the monthly Retail Performance Pulse, the Flash is developed from specialty and large format retail stores on the RetailNext analytics platform and located within the continental U.S. It will be available starting Friday, November 27.

"The Retail Performance Pulse delivers valuable shopping data insights for this most critical time of year for our retailer customers, and combined with somewhat positive macroeconomic indicators, it signals a cautiously optimistic Holiday outlook," said Bridget Johns, head of customer success at RetailNext. "The daily Thanksgiving Flash of the Retail Performance Pulse over the five-day shopping holiday weekend will provide frequent, near real-time updates toward what shoppers are doing – and not doing – at stores."

"Retailers that reimagine Thanksgiving will start the season strong," added Kohan. "The event is a now a weeklong endeavor so planning accordingly will eliminate reactionary price reductions that diminish margins. While Black Friday, Super Saturday and Cyber-Monday will still have starring roles, the best strategy to optimize sales will be with a well-laid out plan for the week."

"Other big initiatives will be around service, with an emphasis on easing pain points experienced by shoppers in their journeys," added Johns. "Everything from ensuring inventory availability to closing the gap where shoppers enter the store with more knowledge about the brand and its products and services than sales associates can be easy wins for retailers, but it will be important for service initiatives to be implemented for shoppers' sake rather than retailers' benefit."

About RetailNext
The first technology platform to bring e-commerce style shopper analytics to brick-and-mortar stores and malls, RetailNext's hardware-agnostic SaaS platform enables retailers to develop actionable insights on data collected from a wide variety of shopper-centric data streams. More than 200 retailers and brands worldwide have adopted RetailNext solutions to glean the insights necessary to improve customer experience, increase same-store sales, reduce theft and eliminate unnecessary costs.

RetailNext measures the behavior of more than three billion shoppers per year by collecting data from over 100,000 sensors in retail stores and analyzing trillions of data points annually. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., RetailNext is a growing global brand operating in 50 countries. For more information, please visit www.retailnext.net.

RetailNext Inc. and RetailNext are trademarks of RetailNext Inc. in the United States.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140113/CL44102LOGO

SOURCE RetailNext

Related Links

http://retailnext.net