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US Survey Update: Consumers’ Latest Expectations for Holiday-Season Shopping (Full Report)

Our latest survey report provides a detailed update on US consumers’ behaviors, concerns and expectations amid the coronavirus crisis, with a focus on the implications for retail. This week, we focus on consumers’ expected shopping behaviors for the 2020 holiday season. We also discuss shoppers’ current online spending habits and avoidance of public places, as well as what activities they expect to do in the next two weeks. Our consumer survey was undertaken on October 13.

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Insights from Amazon’s US Prime Day 2020: A Discount-Focused Start to Holiday Shopping

Amazon held its sixth annual Prime Day shopping festival in the US on October 13–14, having postponed it from July due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We present insights from the 48-hour event, which offered promotions in multiple retail categories and saw the e-commerce platform feature livestreaming sessions to promote deals in real time. We also outline the selected major US retailers that offered deals alongside Amazon’s event this year.

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3D Printing: The Future of the Retail Supply Chain?

3D printing is an emerging technology that brands and retailers are increasingly incorporating into their manufacturing processes. We discuss ways to leverage 3D technology to optimize manufacturing processes and supply chains, with a focus on the retail industry. By analyzing select use cases, we explore the benefits of this innovative technology, as well as the limitations that have held mainstream retailers back from consistent or large-scale use of 3D printing in manufacturing.

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Holiday 2020: US Retail Outlook—Five Reasons Why We’re Looking for 5% Growth

We provide our first estimates for the US retail outlook for holiday 2020, covering expected total retail sales growth and demand by category and sector. We discuss five factors supporting our estimates—including food retail demand, a switch from services to products, and earlier holiday shopping in October. We also consider three wildcards that could have hard-to-predict impacts on holiday spending, including the November election outcome and store capacity issues.

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China’s National Day Wrap-Up: Golden Week Sees Uptick in Discretionary Spending

China’s National Day holiday ran from October 1 through October 8 this year. We discuss data and offer insights into consumption patterns and behaviors among Chinese tourists during Golden Week 2020, covering travel revenue, retail sales, spending in discretionary categories and food-service revenue. We also consider travel to Macau and the popularity of duty-free shopping.

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Market Outlook: US Drugstore Retail—Telehealth Adoption Accelerates and Competition Heats Up in Health Care

In this Market Outlook, we explore the US drugstore retail sector and its future outlook. We consider the competitive landscape, market innovators and disruptors, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on market growth and online sales. This report also discusses a number of key themes in the market, including store openings from CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, increased telehealth adoption and the growth of drugstore retail e-commerce.

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Big Billion Days 2020 Preview: Flipkart Offers Pre-Booking and Daily Shopping Games To Drive Sales

Launched in 2014, the Big Billion Days shopping festival is the annual flagship shopping event of Walmart-owned Indian retailer Flipkart. The Big Billion days sale will take place on October 16–21 this year. We explore a preview of key features of this year’s Big Billion Days shopping festival, including pre-booking, shopping games, offers and promotions, and upcoming events by retail competitors.

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The 12 Weeks of Holidays: #3—Carriers Add Holiday Surcharges To Manage Holiday Peak Capacity

We discuss the issues regarding last-mile shipping for the holiday season this year, with a focus on shipping capacity volumes and holiday surcharge fees for the big three carriers in the US—FedEx, UPS and the USPS. This report is part of our 12 Weeks of Holidays series, in which we present key data, trends and observations as we count down to the peak holiday season.

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US Apparel Retail: Post-Crisis Outlook—Fall 2020 Update

We explore the continued impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on the US apparel retail sector and present an outlook for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021. In addition to commentary from US apparel brands and retailers, we discuss the adoption of new selling models, expansion in the digital channel and technological innovation, among other key trends. We summarize our key estimates in an infographic.

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