It's hard to look anywhere online this morning without finding a story about how good a month November was for retailers. Same-store sales at retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters were up six percent. The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) had the number at 5.8 percent. The consensus going into the month was that sales would be up three percent and change.
Online sales, which were expected to be up for the month, didn't disappoint, with IBM's CoreMetrics, comScore and others reporting double-digit increases over last year. Cyber Monday generated over $1 billion in revenues.
"It's a cheerful holiday start -- for most," Alison Kenny Paul, vice chairman and leader of the U.S. retail team at Deloitte, told The Wall Street Journal. "People are back in spirit, shaking off the recession and spending on themselves, as well as for gifts."
Another positive for retailers is that consumers still have a lot of shopping to do. The Journal, sourcing ICSC, reported fewer than one-in-three consumers had completed their holiday season shopping by the beginning of this week. That is below the 42 percent for the same period last year.
Pretty much everywhere you look, retailers reported better-than-expected results. In fact, it's probably easier to list the few that fell below expectations. The poster child for the under-performers appears to be Aeropostale. The teen retailer appears to be behind the curve on current fashions and had to resort to aggressive discounting (50 - 75 percent off) to get consumers into its stores. The company announced a c-suite shakeup this week with co-CEO Cindy Meads leaving the company and Thomas Johnson taking over the role solo.
Discussion Questions: Are you surprised by the results of the holiday selling season so far? Do you expect December's results to be similarly positive? What retailer(s) have surprised you most so far for either good or bad?
- Shopper Splurge Buoys Hopes - The Wall Street Journal
- U.S. November Chain Store Sales Outperform Industry Expectations - International Council of Shopping Centers
- ICSC Shopping Center Executive Barometer Shifts Course in November as Business Conditions Significantly Improve - International Council of Shopping Centers
- Sector Snap: Teen stores report split November - The Associated Press/Forbes.com
- Aeropostale Names Thomas P. Johnson Chief Executive Officer; Announces Departure of Mindy C. Meads, Co-Chief Executive Officer - Aeropostale, Inc./PRNewswire via COMTEX
- Aeropostale Reports Record Third Quarter 2010 and November Sales Results - Aeropostale, Inc./PRNewswire via COMTEX