#retail-demand-slowdown

#retail-demand-slowdown

"Transportation costs are a big factor there. Every company that is involved and has logistics and they have to pay for gas, either they have to absorb this cost, or they will charge the third party that will provide this service. I'm not surprised this is happening, because at some point, Amazon will say we cannot absorb all this cost."

"Fresh food and perishables are almost like the canary in the coal mine," when energy prices go up, according to Vidya Mani, an associate professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.

The convenience of sourcing online is fraught with more pitfalls than most of us want to admit. Try finding adequate photos of a vintage piece's condition-close-ups of the fabric, video of damaged areas, any images of a piece's rear or underside!

Pop Mart's reliance on 'The Monsters' IP has raised concerns, as it accounted for 40% of revenue in 2025 but dropped to 23% in 2024, indicating potential volatility.

High energy prices are kryptonite for the housing market. Affordability, especially for those first-time home buyers, is now an elusive dream until oil prices come down and interest rates come down.

The AIM Index is a survey of more than 140 Massachusetts employers that has run since 1991. It is calculated on a 100-point scale, with 50 as neutral; a reading above 50 is positive, while below 50 is negative. The state's March rating was 47, down from 52 in February.

The challenges we all face are significant. The list is long but at the top are the terrible ongoing war and violence in Ukraine, the current war in Iran and the broader hostilities in the Middle East, terrorist activity and growing geopolitical tensions, importantly with China.

Boomers are far more likely than any other group to be aware of price increases. When prices go up, they cut back on non-essential items and avoid impulse buys, with just 53% succumbing to them.

"It's a brutal job market. To see that 3.1% hiring rate, the lowest since April 2020, underscores how little hiring is going on."

Within roughly the past six months alone, Swiftly expanded its alcohol rebate programs from about 11,000 stores to more than 33,000 stores in 44 states. Swiftly had built an alcohol cashback product in 2023 but scaled it through the acquisition of alcohol promotions platform BYBE in 2024.

'Walmart Worries' just keep multiplying. It's currently close to the highest level ever recorded which was during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-09.

TD Cowen reduced estimates across the household and personal care space, arguing that companies will be unable to fully mitigate higher oil-related input costs stemming from the Iran war.

"Everything in today's e-commerce environment is being driven by increased intensity of the research phase and true generational divides during the current macroeconomic environment," said Jaysen Gillespie, VP of product marketing and analytics at RTB House.

To achieve ambitious targets during continued economic uncertainty, marketing strategies must evolve and adapt. This begs the question: how do we need to adjust our plans to better serve our consumer's needs? Let's first hone in on the biggest challenges we're currently facing as an industry. Understanding your customer and their needs Consumer shopping behavior is vastly different now than in 2019 and, while looking back on past data is still essential, we can't use it as robustly to predict trends.