dealerscope

The retail industry, which accounts for roughly   18.7 percent of GDP , is one of the key metrics that economists look to when judging the health of the economy. Retailers are the front line of the US economy and are highly susceptible to macroeconomic fluctuations such as   inflation , which affect consumer behavior.  Just this past week, Target and Walmart, released their earnings reports for the second quarter of 2022. These set of reports reflected the impact of sustained inflation on consumer spending, as customers adjust their behaviors to account for the drag of inflation. Walmart over delivered on forecasts by posting an 8.4 percent jump in profits and a same-store sales increase by 6.5 percent. Target on the other hand saw profits decrease by 90 percent, as the company liquidated excess inventory. Both retailers saw an increase in grocery sales and a decline in consumer electronics as customers trim spending back to necessities.  Appliance and CE r...

  Shopify  only added  71,000 new merchants  in the first half of 2022, which puts it on pace to add just 142,000 new merchants this year. These numbers are a far cry from 2020 and 2021 when the online shopping platform added 680,000 and 314,000 merchants respectively. Globally, the number of merchants using the platform has plateaued slightly below 2 million. The overall stagnation of Shopify’s growth can be attributed mostly to the decline in online shopping.  In a reversal of pandemic-era trends, many brick-and-mortar retailers are experiencing immense growth while  online retailers struggle . Costco is one of the physical retailers that has benefitted from consumers focusing on necessities and bulk deals. Over a 48-year week-to-date period,  Costco’s net sales  increased by 16.4 percent to $205.19 billion. This is a continuing growth trend for the company, which has had a strong resurgence over the tail end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022....