Photo: RetailWire
Latino consumers are cutting back on purchases, and the consequences are real for retailers. That was the message delivered to an audience at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech event yesterday by Target CEO Brian Cornell.
“The Hispanic consumer in the U.S. is shopping much less,” Mr. Cornell said. “They are staying home. They are going out less often.”
People who identify as Latinos make up 20 percent of the population in the U.S. For years, marketers have talked about the growing importance these consumers have when it comes to retail’s bottom line performance. So, what has caused the pullback on spending? One explanation could be Amazon.com, which offers a Spanish language shopping option on its site. Another, may be the election of Donald Trump as president.
While Mr. Cornell did not mention Mr. Trump by name as a factor in falling sales numbers, he did say that towns around the Mexican border have seen some of the biggest declines. Consumers who used to travel across the border to purchase in U.S. stores aren’t doing so in the same numbers and with the same frequency as before.
“There’s almost a cocooning factor,” Mr. Cornell was quoted by the Star Tribune. “They are staying at home.”
Marshall Cohen, the chief retail industry analyst for NPD Group, said that the election of Donald Trump as president has had a chilling effect on purchasing. NPD reports spending by Latino consumers in the U.S. is down eight percent this year.
“There’s clearly been a pullback,” Mr. Cohen, told Bloomberg. “There’s concern about going out in an environment where you could be deported.”