Macroeconomics Insight Center

Key takeaways  Shoppers surveyed through ShopperScape® around the time the stock market selloff began in late February signaled they were keeping their spending plans steady. Top-line retail growth benefited a great deal from a comparison to very weak growth in the year-ago period ...

COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has emerged as the pernicious element that has often contributed to past US recessions — an unpredictable and hard-to-quantify global event. The global disease joins the two other common recession ingredients — shifting policies ...

A delay in the processing of tax refunds has likely dampen retail sales growth in the first two months of 2020. Cash Flow consumers are likely the most directly affected given they have limited savings to fall back on. Suppliers and retailers that operate in the discounter or mass/value channels ...

Despite the increasing numbers of cases of COVID-19 across Asia, the top fear is not falling sick but the threat that the virus may hurt individuals’ financial health, according to a recent study* conducted by Kantar.  As the global financial markets plummet in what seems to be the ...

Key takeaways   Shoppers surveyed through ShopperScape® signaled that they would curtail some of their spending after the holiday, likely to pay down credit card balances and recoup savings. Online shoppers dialed back their spending in January after driving the strongest nonstore ...

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In a society with so much focus on millennials, we have almost forgotten another, even more promising generation: seniors. Brands and distributors have not yet developed customer relations adapted to the over-55s and there are few specific offers that appeal to rather than stigmatise the elderly. ...

Total retail sales growth warmed up in the 2019 holiday, but some channels were left out in the cold. Shoppers shunned most in-store specialty and department store channels in favor of online and select mass retailers. The mixed holiday performance has already triggered a few retailers to announce ...

There are anticipated to be some rays of sunshine this holiday coming mostly from omnichannel shoppers, while clouds will continue to hover over some parts of retail. The forecast assumes the full boat of tariffs will go into effect in December, rattling investor and shopper confidence late ...

Ahold Delhaize USA reported 0.2% growth in Q2 2019 for both comparable sales without fuel and net sales. This growth amounted to USD10.9 billion in net sales for the quarter when a strike at its Stop & Shop banner cost the company $345 million in sales. For the first half of the year, the ...