The most recent reports from Canada show improvements in the retail industry, especially for clothing and accessories stores. The latest report from Statistic Canada found that retail sales increased 0.5 percent in February 2014 to a total of about CA$41 billion (US$38 billion). The report looked at 11 different sectors of retail and found seven of them had improved, including health and personal care stores as well as general merchandise retailers and clothing, shoe and accessories stores.

Health and personal care stores, which includes pharmacies, drug stores, and supplement stores, saw the biggest month-over-month gains of 2.6 percent, and general stores had gains of 1.4 percent. The clothing and accessories category may have seen the most important changes, as gains in February were the first following two months of declining sales.

Overall, this sector experienced a 1.5 percent increase in sales, and clothing stores were responsible for much of the growth, with 1.8 percent gains, while shoe stores saw a rise of 0.8 percent and retailers selling accessories, leather goods and jewelry only had an average 0.1 percent improvement. Electronics and appliance stores also saw gains, with sales jumping up 1.3 percent from January.

Canadian retailers can capitalize on the improving economic conditions by ramping up their shopping experiences. More efficient point of sale services, for instance, can encourage customers to come in and make purchases. Online merchants may want to look into updating their ecommerce software as well, which can help draw more site traffic.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Friday, April 25th, 2014 at 5:02 am .