Heading in the right direction

Retail sales consultant Retail Metrics Inc. predicts that the 30 national retailers it tracks will this week post a 3.4% gain in sales for December at stores open for at least a year. That is atop a 3% gain for December 2009.

Overall, the National Retail Federation trade group forecasts that retail sales in November and December increased by 3.3% this year to $451 billion.

The positive gains made this holiday season appear to be sustainable. In December 2010 and already in the New Year our customers are engaging us to help with detailed custom data analysis for line review preparation. This is always a good sign of an improving economy. It means business leaders are ready to compete. They are looking for opportunities and making sure any weaknesses are explained, along with a plan for improvement. Underlying all of this is very careful point of sale data analysis, so that plans and recommendations are fact based. We have been carefully analyzing products across retailers, identifying trends in product sales, geographic trends, pricing variances, etc.  It's amazing what EDI 852 can tell you if you have a good database with several years of history. Dig into your EDI 852 and get ahead of your competition.