Things are looking up for the American retail industry, 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, 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.

"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.

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

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 and POS retail management systems in preparation for the anticipated influx of customers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, March 17th, 2014 at 12:17 pm .