The Accessories Council Discusses This Year's ACE Awards
Accessories MagazineThe Accessories Council “ACE” Awards (Accessories Council Excellence) were established 21 years ago to celebrate the designers, brands, influencers and leaders who have helped to define our industry. In this article, Accessories Council President Karen Giberson provides insight on the 2017 winners who will be honored at the August 7 award event in New York City. Included on this list is The NPD Group, winning the Business Leadership category. “A trusted worldwide force, the NPD team works tirelessly to stay on top of trends and statistics at retail. Their dedication to the fashion accessories industry has grown greatly over the years with new categories being added. This savvy fashion team is generous with their time, charitable, and most importantly a nice group to work with!”
July 12, 2017
Karyn Schoenbart Named Among Top 25 Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market for 2017
CEO ConnectionFor the third consecutive year, the CEO Connection® has named Karyn Schoenbart, NPD's chief executive officer, one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market, a distinction that honors women who have the power to influence change, innovation, and standards of excellence in Mid-Market companies.
July 10, 2017
J.C. Penney Tries to Capture Best of Kohl's in New Loyalty Program
The Dallas Morning NewsJ.C. Penney is unveiling a new loyalty program that lets Sephora customers double-dip on rewards and allows earned points to roll over from month to month. When a retailer's customers are divided into trenches, 80 percent of the customers who bought the most with them had a loyalty card, said The NPD Group's Andy Mantis, executive vice president of NPD’s Checkout Tracking, a service that analyzes receipts across retailers.
July 3, 2017
Is There a Tipping Point for Loyalty?
Women's Wear DailyAs downsizing, store closures and bankruptcies continue to sweep through the retail world in 2017, it’s worth taking a step back and looking for insights. A few questions need to be asked when a retail business goes under: Why did it fail? How did that failure manifest? What might be learned? And, interesting as the “why” answers may be, the “how” answers provide the most insight for retailers looking to avoid becoming the next casualty of this current retail apocalypse.
June 29, 2017
How Blue Apron Delivery Service Has Changed the Way We Do Dinner
TodayThe popular on-demand meal delivery service Blue Apron goes public on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, valued at more than $3 billion. Our own Darren Seifer discussed exactly what makes Blue Apron so special. "They have taken away the stress of figuring out what to make at dinner time, while still getting something that's fresh, and something that consumers can customize to their own specific tastes." Find out how the company is turning the tables on how millions of families have dinner.
June 29, 2017
Millennials Are the True Post-Aspirational Consumers
Target MarketingSince the start of the Recession, consumers have dialed back sharply on “reach” purchasing — gone are the days when aspirational shoppers earning a $40,000 annual salary are buying a $2,400 Chanel handbag, most likely charging it. Written by NPD's Chief Industry Analyst Marshal Cohen.
June 22, 2017
Retailers Want to Work out Your Wallet and Your Body
Associated PressWhile clothing stores struggle, U.S. activewear sales have increased. In 2016, they rose 11 percent over the previous year to nearly $46 billion, according to The NPD Group, a consumer tracking service, and are up from $36.9 billion in 2014.
June 19, 2017
With Bonobos Purchase, Walmart Chases All-New Customers
Retail DiveWith its $310 million cash takeover of men’s apparel basics company Bonobos, Walmart, as with its other recent e-commerce acquisitions, is buying into a customer base that is mostly alien to it: Less than 1 percent of Walmart buyers shop at Bonobos and they give Bonobos 0.04 percent of their online spend, according to NPD Group’s Checkout Tracking.
June 1, 2017
Selling Sheets Without Mentioning Thread Counts
BloombergJoe Derochowski, who tracks the $13 billion bedding industry for market-research firm The NPD Group, says Parachute and online mattress peddlers such as Casper Sleep Inc. and Tuft & Needle have done a “phenomenal job of decommoditizing the sleeping industry.
June 1, 2017
Fast-Food Chains, Upscale Restaurants Want to Bring You Lunch
The Wall Street JournalRestaurants are no longer treating lunchtime delivery as an afterthought. With online-ordering apps proliferating and many customers cutting down on eating out for lunch, the industry—from fast-food chains to upscale restaurateurs—is looking for ways to bring food to patrons without compromising their eating experience. Delivery only accounts for 3 percent of restaurant purchases nationwide, but it is growing fast. Non-pizza delivery purchases have risen by 30 percent in the past four years, according to market-research firm The NPD Group Inc.
May 31, 2017
Lunch Loss: Why the Mid-Day Meal Is Dying Out
TODAY ShowA lot of people are not going to lunch anymore. According to the market research firm The NPD Group, Americans made 430 million fewer trips to restaurants during lunch time last year, which translates to billions of dollars less revenue for restaurants.
May 31, 2017
Diners Are Finding $13 Burgers Hard to Swallow
The Wall Street JournalLunch traffic to quick-serve hamburger restaurants fell 5 percent last year—the biggest year-over-year decline that market-research firm NPD Group Inc. has recorded. The cost of eating out—especially when cooking at home has become cheaper—is a key reason hamburger chains are seeing less foot traffic, NPD restaurant analyst Bonnie Riggs said.
May 30, 2017
The Future of America's Shoe Obsession Is Male
BloombergIf current trends continue, men’s U.S. shoe sales will soon surpass women’s. At $26.2 billion in 2016 versus $29.9 billion for women’s footwear, “men’s is closer in size to women’s than it’s ever been,” says Beth Goldstein, fashion footwear and accessories analyst at The NPD Group. Women’s sales are shrinking as men’s continue to rise, in both revenue and number of pairs sold.
May 30, 2017
The Business of Breakfast
EaterEarlier this year, The NPD Group, a food and consulting research firm, announced in a press release that out of the three meal times, only breakfast has seen a growth in traffic. Bonnie Riggs, a restaurant industry analyst at The NPD Group, said that breakfast visits for the year ending in March 2017 had increased by 1 percent, although admittedly 80 percent of this has been attributed to quick-service restaurants like McDonald's and Taco Bell.
May 30, 2017
Priorities, Redefined: Meet The Post-Aspirational Shopper
CMO by AdobeThe days of the aspirational purchase—buying an item because it evokes a sense of financial achievement beyond what is realistic—are over. Not by coincidence, Mad Men-style advertising—that tippy-toe reach for the elegant, the seductive, the out-of-reach—isn’t exactly connecting with consumers anymore, either. If this style of marketing doesn’t work, what does? Has it been replaced? Its target definitely has: Meet the post-aspirational shopper.
May 30, 2017
Going Out for Lunch Is a Dying Tradition
The Wall Street JournalThe U.S. restaurant industry is in a funk. Blame it on lunch. Americans made 433 million fewer trips to restaurants at lunchtime last year, resulting in roughly $3.2 billion in lost business for restaurants, according to market-research firm The NPD Group Inc. It was the lowest level of lunch traffic in at least four decades.
May 29, 2017
Episode #53: Footwear Consumer Sentiment in Real Time with The NPD Group
Shoe-In PodcastLori Monaco, President of Fashion Footwear, Accessories, Luxury Watches and Jewelry at The NPD Group covers the ins and outs of all things footwear with Matt Priest and Andy Polk on this week's Shoe-In podcast episode.
May 23, 2017
These Are the Top Selling Sneakers of April
Footwear NewsAccording to data provided by The NPD Group, the top-grossing sneaker for April 2017 was the Air Jordan 11 Low. The Air Jordan 11, however, was not the only retro Air Jordan basketball style to make the top 10. Also on the list is the Air Jordan 4. Adidas followed Nike with three styles in the top 10: the Superstar, the NMD Runner and the Tubular Shadow. Matt Powell, VP and sports industry analyst with The NPD Group, said having multiple models doing well is “further evidence of the brand’s success.”
May 21, 2017
Gyms Are Capitalizing on the Death of Fashion
Business InsiderMay 9, 2017
With Kate Spade Acquisition, Coach Sets Course for 'Modern Luxury' Domination
The Business of FashionApril 12, 2017
Nearly Every American Spent Money at Wal-Mart Last Year
NBC NewsApril 11, 2017
How Retailers Are Thriving Despite the Supposed Death of Their Industry
EntrepreneurApril 11, 2017
Ninety-Five Percent of US Consumers Made at Least One Trip to Walmart Last Year
QuartzApril 10, 2017
More Trouble for Restaurants: Loyal Customers Are Cutting Back
CNBCThe restaurant industry could be headed for an even greater funk this year, as more consumers opt to save their money rather than dine out. Analysts at The NPD Group expected quick-service chains to see traffic grow by about 1 percent, while visits to full-service chains are anticipated to fall 2 percent.
April 1, 2017
How to Win the 'Value War' in Quick Service
QSR MagazineThe NPD Group studied leading quick serves offering value bundles and found that although value bundles are not driving the average check amount, they are driving other key metrics, such as combo incidence. Quick-service burger customers, for example, are experiencing double-digit incidence success by offering value bundles. Additionally, The NPD Group found that value bundles drive monthly visit frequency and, therefore, lead to a higher monthly spend among buyers.
March 21, 2017
The Unexpected Benefit of US Political Protests: A Spike in Poster Board Sales
QuartzIn the week before the Women’s March on January 21, which saw millions of women take to the street across the world to advocate for human rights, materials for protest signs were flying off the shelves across the United States. About 2.7 million poster and foam boards were sold that week, according to an analysis by market research firm The NPD Group.
Compared to the same week in 2016, that was an increase of 33 percent for poster boards, and 42 percent for foam boards.
March 20, 2017
Nike Earnings: What to Watch
The Wall Street JournalNike, the world’s largest sportswear maker, is facing increased competition at home, where it faces ongoing pressure on sporting-goods retailers, the demand for more casual “athleisure” styles and archrival Adidas AG, which more than doubled its share of U.S. footwear in January, according to The NPD Group.
March 16, 2017
Buying a New TV? Here’s How to Cut Through the Jargon
The New York TimesShould you buy now or wait? Consider upgrading now if you have not bought a television in the last two years, Stephen Baker, vice president of technology industry analysis at The NPD Group, a consumer research firm, wrote in an email. Improvements in electronics make for superior picture quality, standards have been settled and the technology has been vetted. “It is pretty clear that 2017 is going to be the most compelling year” since the introduction of flat-panel models to get a new television, he wrote.
March 13, 2017
Shoe Manufacturing May Come Back to America, but the Jobs May Not
Business InsiderBut Brands like Nike and Adidas are looking for ways to bring their products to market faster than manufacturing in Asia allows. The solution, then, is to reshore American manufacturing, but find somewhere to cut costs. Since the largest cost is labor, cutting down the workforce significantly would be prudent. Enter automation. Essentially, shoe manufacturing is already on its way back to the US, but the manufacturing jobs may not come along with it. "It's a drop in the bucket," Matt Powell, an analyst at NPD, told Bloomberg. "I don't see a day where we'll be making shoes in the US at a commercial scale."
March 11, 2017
The Relentless Drone Invasion is Moving from Photography and Deliveries to Racing
CNBCIn a field defined by camera drones like the DJI Phantom—and at a time when unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are delivering packages, taking pictures and undertaking clandestine government operations—drone racing remains a niche. However, the FAA expects the commercial drone market to explode from 1.9 million in unit sales last year to 4.3 million by 2020. In a 2016 report, The NPD Group said commercial drone sales skyrocketed by more than 200 percent from 2015.