US retail industry making strong strides toward recovery
Leading up to and during the economic downturn, American consumers severely curbed their spending in order to cope with the recession. This in turn impacted the nation's retailers, as many saw their revenues and customer bases drop. However, as conditions continue to improve, merchants are making a strong comeback in many ways.
Just-Style writes that one solid sector of retail that is seeing immense growth is the apparel market. American clothing companies have contributed to the expansion of global apparel industry, which is also being helped by the western European and Canadian markets. The source points out that domestic apparel retailers have made alterations to their sales strategies to deal with an emergence of international brands cropping up within the U.S. These changes include enhancing marketing efforts, streamlining operations with retail management software and many other methods, the source notes.
While the official figures have yet to be released, the Wall Street Journal reports that recent statistics from Redbook Research found that retail sales throughout the country grew 0.6 percent from the previous month during the first four weeks of May. As for year-over-year totals, sales increased 2.7 percent, the source explains.