(Retail Association of Nevada) – The Spring season brings with it a feeling of renewal and consumers who have been trapped in a Great Recession for all of winter are starting to emerge with a new vigor for shopping.
Earlier this week, WSL Strategic Retail released is biannual “Megatrends” study on consumer retail spending trends. This study, according to Candace Corlett, the group’s president, indicates that “Shoppers are making more stops to more stores, but more shoppers have turned to the internet to make more of their purchases.”
The study also ranked the locations that most consumers are frequenting. While big outlets, such as Kroger and Walmart, are leading the list, the Internet has jumped to the number 3 position. Women especially found internet shopping appealing, with 47% shopping on-line in the last quarter and 24% shopping there weekly (up from 10% in 2008).
Increased consumer spending is good news for retailers as shoppers head into the Easter Holiday. According to a poll conducted by Shop.org, a subdivision of the National Retail Federation, online consumers plan to spend a combined net average of $221.73 for Easter while the average consumer will spend $118.60 on Easter, up from $116.59 last year. For Nevada’s 1.9 million residents over the age of 18, that spending level could mean total Easter spending of $225.4 million.
Mary Lau, President of the Retail Association of Nevada, noted that similar nationwide optimism was found prior to the Christmas season, but here in Nevada, spending levels were down in December.
“While polls show spending for Easter in 2010 up nationwide, Nevada is trailing the nation in economic recovery and we still have a long road ahead of us before we reach the pre-recession spending levels that have sustained retailers in the past.”
Lau also noted that as on-line shopping continues to gain a bigger share of consumer spending, both local retail revenues and state sales taxes will remain depressed.
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