Consumer retail spending in October continued to be solid, with many retailers reporting good comparable store increases. Limited Brands reported a 6% rise in same-store sales and raised their quarterly Wall St. outlook. Victoria’s Secret led the charge with a 9% comp store increase.

Thomson Reuters released that some 11 retailers were slightly off Wall St. estimates. That said, most retailers still generated excellent growth. Joel Bines, managing director at Alix Partners released to the Associated Press, “It’s still a solid performance.”

The department store sector continues to demonstrate its focus on fashion, with Nordstrom posting 5.4% growth, even after +10.7% in September. Dillard's was the October leader with an 8% increase. And Neiman Marcus also continues as a leader, closing their most recent quarter with an 11% increase.

Based upon slow and steady Washington politics the American consumer is expecting few changes to unemployment or money policy through 2011. We believe holiday sales 2011 will continue this solid volume trend, with potential for the strongest sales growth since holiday 2007 of the Great Recession.

Fashion and Home Gaining Momentum
Fashion is the pacing element for apparel retailers. Chicos FAS continues as a fashion leader with +12.9% for October. In the younger strata Buckle and Abercrombie led their segments with +8.9% and +9.0% growth, respectively. The sameness represented at GAP is attracting little attention. Unfortunately, Gap’s death spiral continued with a -6% performance. Pier 1 continues to dazzle with +10.8% for their most recent quarter.

Talent Wars
Our business is helping our Client partners attract top talent away from their competition. That process becomes more complicated when the candidate has several different offers to consider or a home to sell, or both. The Talent Wars are on.

If your HR professionals are having a challenging time filling positions it’s simply a product of a more complicated market. Dedicated recruiting professionals may be a solution. We ask the tough questions up front so that finalists are ready to accept an offer if one is generated. If your HR team is getting their offers turned-down on mission-critical positions then it may be time to engage our services.

The leading retail brands engage our services because we deliver the top performing candidates. We cold call and attract the best talent from the competition, then deliver them to our Client partners. Be a part of the winning retail team, be a part of Retail Search Group. Since beginning in 1985 we’re in our 26th year dedicated to attracting and placing retail professionals.

Our highly tenured retail team delivers recruiting expertise in the following areas:

Retail Field Operations
Human Resources
Buying and Global Product Development
Retail Finance & Accounting
Merchandise Planning & Allocation
Distribution Services
Retail Multi-Channel Marketing
Visual Presentation

Click here for October National Retail Sales Results

Consumers continue to exceed projected spending patterns, delivering a 5.1% overall increase for September. This is significantly above the 4.6% increase projected for the month by Thomson Reuters. With September being a bell weather month for holiday sales we have every reason to believe that holiday 2011 could generate the strongest sales growth since the recession’s beginning in 2007.

High-Highs
Fashion right retailers continue to dominate, separating themselves from those floundering in yester-year merchandising strategies. Fashion department stores are competing head-to-head with fashion specialty. Saks delivered 9.3% comparable store growth for September. Macys just delivered a young men’s fashion line that boldly positions them as the one to watch. Macys delivered a 4.9% increase for September. Nordstrom posted 10.7% growth for September, contrasted to Gap’s -4.0% performance. Expect significant changes to Gap’s Merchant team to stop the bleeding. Limited brands up 11.0% and Buckle up 10.3%. Consumers are spending!

And, fashion is selling in home store as well. Pier 1 led the home area with a 10.8% increase for September. Visit a store and you’ll understand why – coordinated fashion statements abound.

The Mainstream
Discount retailers like Costco continue to dominate their spaces. Costco delivered 12% growth for September.

Some Fall Short
JC Penney continues to slide, with sales down 0.6% for September. This is a stark contrast to Target +5.3% and Kohl’s +4.1% for the same period. JCP is failing to deliver the fashion content needed to attract customers into their stores. Fashion talent delivers the right assortments – an area JCP needs to scrutinize closely.

Retail Employment Growing
Seamus Kelleher, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at MRI Network, shared that, “A variety of retailers saw modest employment gains, including food and beverage, health and personal care, and general merchandise stores. In total, retail trade added 13,600 positions, a relatively small gain on its 14.5 million workers, though the types of stores that are seeing gains is telling.” And, gains across the industry are broad based. For example, Tiffany posted 22% comparable store increase for second quarter.

Talent Wars
The Economist just dedicated an entire issue to The Quest for Jobs. The U.S. is facing a huge talent shortage. Competition for experienced management is increasing rapidly. Workers are demanding more of employers in the form of both cash and non-cash compensation. Expect to see more of this through the balance of 2011 and 2012. If your organization is active in succession planning the time invested will yield an excellent return in the coming years.

The leading brands in retail engage our services because we deliver the top performing candidates. We cold call and attract the best talent from the competition, then deliver them to our Client partners. Be a part of the winning retail team, be a part of Retail Search Group. Since beginning in 1985 we’re in our 26th year dedicated to attracting and placing retail professionals.

Our highly tenured retail team delivers recruiting expertise in the following areas:
Retail Finance & Accounting
Buying and Global Product Development
Merchandise Planning & Allocation
Retail Field Operations
Human Resources
Distribution Services
Retail Multi-Channel Marketing
Visual Presentation

Click here for September National Retail Sales Results

August sales show that consumers are continuing to spend despite concern expressed around consumer confidence. In fact, overall August sales increased 4.4%. Some 11 of 25 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters exceeded their sales expectations. One word separates those with strong comparable store numbers, and its “fashion.” Check out the attached list and you’ll see that fashion is selling across the board for both apparel and home store.

High-End Highs
Nordstrom posted a 6.7% comp store increase, followed closely by Macys with a 5% increase. Saks turned in a 6.1% increase. Limited brands led the fashion pack with impressive 11.0% comparable store growth.

The Mainstream
Wholesale retailers like Costco and BJ’s continue to dominate their spaces. Costco delivered 11% growth while BJ’s came forward with 11.5% comp store growth for August.

Some Fall Short
Target put their fashion foot forward and led their segment with a 4.1% increase, leaving Gap (-6.0%), Kohl’s (-1.9%) and JC Penney (-1.9%) wondering what happened. The consumer is clearly showing a preference away from basics. It takes a courageous, confident fashion team with experienced retail Buyers to deliver solid apparel numbers. Look at the August sales results and you’ll see who has the talent on board for our times. Expect significant changes at those retailers missing the August fashion train. Their numbers will likely show minimal improvement until they have the right talent to drive their business.

Slowly Getting Better
The unemployment picture has changed little, with little change expected. The good news is that consumers are spending and retail growth continues to be solid for many leading retail brands.

The Candidate Market
As we reported last month, top grading is accelerating as companies are driving extra gross margin points and sales increases. Since when in the retail business is it OK to not deliver increases in those areas? Mediocre performers rarely deliver the best financial results just as the top performers typically do. Is your team delivering to your expectations?

The leading brands in retail engage our services because we deliver the top performing candidates. We cold call and attract the best talent from the competition, then deliver them to our Client partners. Be a part of the winning retail team, be a part of Retail Search Group.

Our highly tenured retail team delivers recruiting expertise in the following areas:

• Retail Field Operations
• Retail Finance & Accounting
• Buying and Global Product Development
• Human Resources
• Retail Multi-Channel Marketing
• Merchandise Planning & Allocation
• Visual Presentation
• Distribution Services

Click here for August National Retail Sales Results