Amid rising inflation, retail sales grew 4% year on year, excluding car dealers, gas stations and restaurants, the National Retail Federation reported Thursday. Retail sales were flat vs. February, which were 0.7% lower than January, it said. Electronics and appliance store sales were down 9.6% year on year but up 3.3% from February, it said. “Consumers have the willingness to spend and their ability to do so has been supported by rapid hiring, increased wages, larger-than-usual tax refunds and the use of credit,” said NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz. With higher interest rates looming as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy, “The challenge for the Fed is to cool off demand without pushing the economy into a dramatic slowdown,” he said.
Walmart launched the Circular Connector, an online tool to match companies looking for sustainable packaging ideas with those that offer them, it blogged Monday. Its goal is to achieve 100% recyclable, reusable or industrially compostable packaging by 2025. The purpose of the connector is to accelerate packaging innovation and time to market, blogged Ashley Hall, director-strategic programs. Innovations will be screened against Walmart’s sustainable packaging goals, and if aligned, will be published later this year for public download on walmartsustainabilityhub.com; they will be made available to Walmart private brands associates and suppliers for their consideration, the retailer said. Difficult-to-recycle materials outlined in Walmart’s Recycling Playbook could be disqualified from inclusion, including metallized films, polyvinyl chloride, expanded polystyrene foam, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) glycol or colored PET, oxo-degradable, undetectable carbon black and biodegradable additives in petroleum-based plastics, it said.
Consumer spending on services is on the rise, and in-store retail sales continue to rebound after altered spending trends during the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Mastercard Wednesday. Total March retail sales, excluding auto, grew 8.4% vs. March 2021 and 18% vs. March 2019, not adjusted for inflation. E-commerce sales fell 3.3% but were 83.7% above March 2019 pre-pandemic levels; in-store sales increased 11.2%. Overall retail growth was in line with 8.7% growth in February (see 2203090063) and slightly above January’s 7.2% growth, it said. Luxury goods spending jumped 27.1%, and travel spending had significant growth for airlines (44.8%) and lodging (46.4%). Restaurant sales grew 19.1% in the month. Retail sales are “stabilizing” as consumers resume spending on travel, live entertainment, indoor dining and other in-person activities, said Steve Sadove, senior adviser, with a “balanced level of spending” across retail and services.
Retail spending ended 2021 at 19% above pre-pandemic levels, but retail unit sales declined in nine of the first 10 weeks of 2022, said NPD Monday. Revenue rose more than 5% in four of the 10 weeks. Retailers and manufacturers should prepare for “multiple directional shifts” resulting from the economy and more normalized retail spending against outsized sales over the past two years, said analyst Marshal Cohen. Political unrest, economic challenges and consumers’ financial well-being can create “substantial distraction and retail disturbances,” Cohen said. As consumers become less focused on at-home needs than they were over the past two years, sales of the products most popular through the pandemic continue to exceed pre-COVID-19 performance, said the analyst, citing technology, toys, small appliances and housewares. Consumer spending on in-person experiences reached 91% of pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2021, said Cohen, citing “cautious optimism” as consumers “embrace some newfound freedom from restrictions while not yet letting go of their pandemic ways.”
Target announced Thursday its “most sustainable store to date,” a Vista, California, location it says will generate more renewable energy than it needs annually to operate. The site will test “multiple innovations to reduce the building’s emissions,” said the retailer. The California structure will be a testbed for future investments in new stores and remodel programs that support long-term growth and help the company achieve sustainability goals, it said. It will generate energy via 3,420 solar panels on its roof and carport canopies, which Target expects to produce up to a 10% energy surplus that can be transmitted back to the local power grid. Other emissions-reducing elements include powering the store’s heating through rooftop solar panels instead of natural gas and switching to carbon dioxide refrigeration, a natural refrigerant. Target plans to scale the refrigeration effort chain-wide by 2040 to reduce its direct operations’ emissions by 20%. It committed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions enterprise-wide by 2040; since 2017, it has reduced its direct operations’ emissions by nearly 27%. It plans to reach its net-zero goal through sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable sources for its operations by 2030. The company applied for net-zero energy certification from the International Living Future Institute.
February retail sales were down 1% seasonally adjusted from January’s revised numbers and up 13% year on year, excluding car dealers, gas stations and restaurants, said the National Retail Federation Wednesday, citing inflation and impact from the omicron variant. The U.S. Census Bureau reported overall retail sales were up 0.3% from January and 17.6% year on year. Electronics and appliance stores were down 0.6% month-over-month seasonally adjusted but up 2.6% unadjusted year-over-year. “February retail sales reflected continued strong labor market conditions but were certainly affected by higher consumer prices,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said. Inflation levels at a 40-year high “are hitting household purchasing power and likely restraining spending,” Kleinhenz said. The double-digit year-over-year increase was expected since much of the economy was in stay-at-home mode in February 2021, he said. Though February sales showed the economy’s “resilience,” war in Ukraine is an "increasing headwind that could dampen spending around the globe,” said the economist. NRF forecast Tuesday that 2022 retail sales will increase 6%-8% to $4.86 trillion-$4.95 trillion (see 2203150054).
Walmart is hiring more than 5,000 employees globally and adding tech hubs in Toronto and Atlanta, blogged Suresh Kumar, chief technology officer and chief development officer, Tuesday. The company is focused this year on hiring cybersecurity professionals, architects, developers, software engineers, data scientists and engineers, technical program managers and product managers, Kumar said. The retailer chose Atlanta and Toronto as its newest tech hubs because of their “growing tech presence, connection to Walmart and broad, diverse talent." Toronto is home to 26% of Canada’s tech workforce, said Kumar, saying 25,000 students in the area graduate annually from science, technology, engineering and math fields. It plans to make Toronto one of its major Walmart Global Tech hubs, with plans to create several hundred tech jobs in the next 12 months. Walmart Canada is investing $1 billion in technology and to refurbish local stores, he said.
Walmart opened the application period for its annual Open Call event for Marketplace sellers, it blogged Monday. Those selected can choose a virtual or in-person pitch meeting with a Walmart or Sam’s Club merchant June 28-29, it said. This year, Walmart is offering mentoring sessions to all applicants registering for the event, providing tools to help them become successful selling on Walmart’s virtual and physical shelves, it said. Applicants who receive a one-on-one product pitch meeting invitation will be given 30 minutes to explain why their product and business should be accepted. Winning deals range from supplying products to a handful of local stores to supplying hundreds of Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs and Walmart.com, said the company. Open Call includes breakout sessions with Walmart and Sam’s Club leaders and special guests, it said. Applications will be accepted through April 8.
Walmart, as part of its expanding reach into healthcare, announced two exclusive offerings Thursday on caregiving and vitamin subscriptions. BetterUp for Caregivers gives caregivers access to live group coaching circles, led by a professional coach, and includes tools and a community for support for the 50 million Americans that are caregivers. The Easy Vitamin plan is a 28-day supply of vitamins that’s said to make customized nutrition “accessible and more affordable.” Walmart recommends vitamins to customers who answer questions about age, gender, stress and energy levels, health, exercise and diet and then provide their email address to the retailer. After we filled out the questions, Walmart suggested a multivitamin at $32.95 per 28-day period, along with four supplements ranging $2.49-$4.99 each. Subscribers save 10% at checkout, it said. Speaking to a Bank of Americas Securities conference Wednesday, Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs noted healthcare on its own is a “pretty big business” for the company that ties in well “with how we interact with our customers,” along with financial services, digital advertising, data monetization and other areas. Walmart trialed clinics and diagnostics labs, he noted. On future healthcare plans, Biggs said, “I wouldn’t anticipate us doing something that would surprise investors or analysts” as to how it would tie into Walmart’s business.
A new Target logo will indicate products are refillable, reusable or compostable, made from recycled content, or made from materials that reduce the use of plastic, said the retailer Wednesday. The Target Zero initiative is in response to growing customer interest in products that help reduce waste, it said. Electronics brands weren’t included in the initial list of categories in the program. Target cited Burt’s Bees, which is using metal tins for its lip balms that are recyclable and made without single-use plastics. A Target goal is to have 100% of its private-label products' plastic packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025.