Retail sales in the categories followed by Retail Dive were robust in February, rising 7.7% year over year, with e-commerce up 8.5%, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Commerce. February tends to be the slowest month for retail sales, but strong employment led to fairly steady growth, Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the National Retail Federation, said in a statement.
“Consumers continue to dig deep to fund consumption and are showing remarkable resilience despite various unfavorable economic factors,” GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders said in emailed comments.
Inflation remains high, up 6% in February. But that was driven by spikes in energy and services, with signs of easing in some grocery and discretionary categories, according to a Tuesday report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
itim Group plc (LON:ITIM) is a SaaS-based technology company that enables store-based retailers to optimise their businesses to improve financial performance and effectively compete with online competitors. Itim adds retail value by helping multi-channel retailers optimise their business and their stores to improve financial performance and compete more effectively with the “Amazons”.