{"id":1673255,"date":"2014-03-17T12:17:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T19:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/03\/17\/retail-sales-perk-up-as-spring-approaches\/"},"modified":"2014-03-17T12:17:33","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T19:17:33","slug":"retail-sales-perk-up-as-spring-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/03\/17\/retail-sales-perk-up-as-spring-approaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail sales perk up as spring approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things are looking up for the American retail industry<\/a>, as the latest retail customer trends show gains in nearly every sector. The February U.S. Commerce Department report revealed February saw seasonally adjusted month-over-month gains of 0.3 percent from January. According to Bloomberg, this follows a three-month stretch of losses<\/a>, including 0.6 percent drops in retail sales in January. Many economists believe the low sales numbers this winter were caused by harsher weather conditions.<\/p>\n

"The economy seems to be rebounding from a winter-related slump," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York.<\/p>\n

Retail sectors that experienced growth in February<\/a> included restaurants, automotive, furniture and building materials, USA Today reported. Electronics and grocery stores, on the other hand, experienced modest declines.<\/p>\n

If weather really was the driving factor for the drop in sales, merchants can expect to see an uptick in the amount of traffic in their online and brick-and-mortar stores as Americans get back to shopping. This could be a great opportunity for retailers to update their ecommerce software<\/a> and POS<\/a> retail management systems<\/a> in preparation for the anticipated influx of customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Things are looking up for the American retail industry, as the latest retail customer trends show gains in nearly every sector. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1673256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1673255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-specialty-retail-industry-trends"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t