This presentation will look at the United States retail sales for September 2016. The presentation will look at retail sales by sector as well as the latest trends for eCommerce and what retailers are doing to further expose their product to consumers.

1. RETAIL SALES – UNITED
STATES – SEPTEMBER 2016
BY: PAUL YOUNG, CPA, CGA

2. PAUL YOUNG, CPA, CGA - BIOGRAPHY
• CPA/CGA (Since 1996)
• 25 years of experience in Academia, Industry and Financial solutions
• Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAArky1bAXPSuV2NLtUnyLg

3. AGENDA
• Summary
• Retail Sales by Key Sectors
• eCommerce – Mergers/Acquisitions
• eCommerce – Business/Consumer Mobility
• Housing Costs/Softwood Lumber
• Retail Trends

4. SUMMARY
• Sales at U.S. retail stores rebounded in September, with auto dealers and gas stations racking up the biggest gains, in a sign consumers are
still spending enough to keep the economy on a slow but steady growth path. Retail sales have grown more slowly for a year and a half,
partly because much cheaper gas allowed Americans to save on fuel. Yet shoppers are still frugal, seeking out deals and relying more on
cheaper Internet sites such as Amazon AMZN, -0.76% rather traditional store-front retailers such as Macy’s M, -3.34% - Source:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-retail-sales-climb-06-in-september-2016-10-14-81033311
• Years of increased hiring and a slow acceleration in worker pay have laid a foundation for steady household spending. While third-quarter
purchases will probably fall short of the vigorous pace from April through June, the broad-based pickup across the retail spectrum shows
household demand may be gathering pace. Source: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/us-retail-sales-rose-in-
september-by-the-most-in-three-months
• Friday’s retail-sales report showed sales rose last month across the majority of segments, though it didn’t track spending on most services,
including health care and housing. Spending at restaurants and bars jumped 0.8% from August, the largest one-month jump for the
category since February. Americans last month continued to shift their spending to e-commerce platforms likeAmazon.com from
traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. Sales in the nonstore category, including online retailers, were up 11% in the first nine months of
2016 compared with a year earlier. Sales at department stores were down 4.8% over the same period. Sales at electronics and appliance
stores fell 0.9% in September despite the release ofApple Inc.’s new iPhone 7. The release of new iPhone models in September 2015 had
coincided with the only monthly sales increase for the electronics category during the second half of last year. But Ms. Rosner said a
delayed sales boost could materialize in the coming months. Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-retail-sales-rose-0-6-in-september-
1476448594

5. RETAIL SALES BY KEY SECTORS
Source:
https://www.census.go
v/retail/marts/www/m
arts_current.pdf

6. ECOMMERCE – ONLINE / MERGERS AND
ACQUISITIONS
• Mergers/Acquisitions - http://www.digitaltrends.com/business/police-ecommerce-site-allegro-sold-
private-equity/ . Walmart (USA-based recently purchased Jet.com

7. ECOMMERCE – ONLINE / BUSINESS MOBILITY
• Mobility will continue to shape its growth.
More and more businesses today will keep on growing through mobility. The introduction of new phone apps and ecommerce strategies makes mobility
a winning breakthrough! Can you imagine how far we can still reach by the year 2020?
• Online retailers will use the comfort of ecommerce mobile webs.
• Every marketing channel will be excited to bring your business in a higher level. As for today’s online marketing trends, accessing online stores via mobile browsers will be
easier. Ecommerce using mobile browser is one of today’s tool to unlock your business growth.
• Online stores will leverage its products with various innovating trends.
• Experts have forecasted that ecommerce will give a healthy boom. Mobile browsers will get better and better while online retailers will create more profound online stores
with competitive products for customers.
• Social Media and Mobility will be BIG Hit together.
• Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and others will continue to pave ways on creating super effective strategy on promoting your products and services on the
market. Social media nowadays (both paid and organic strategies) can reach the right target audience, thus resulting to conversions and sales.
• Business Owners will strengthen their Technology Solutions
• Of course, business owners will be more informed and curious on finding the best IT solutions for their business. The more information they need to handle, the more tools
they would check and try. They will be more updated with what’s trending and what will bring new opportunities for their growth.
Source: http://launchtechus.com/2016/10/14/5-exciting-ecommerce-trends-that-will-impact-your-business-mobility/

8. HOUSING COSTS/ISSUES
• Expiration of the Softwood lumber between Canada and United States
• Tariffs/duties up to 30% could be imposed on softwood lumber imported United States from Canada (Source -
http://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/softwood-lumber-dispute-canada-and-united-states)

9. RETAIL TRENDS
• Pop up Shops
• Megan Berry’s innovative retail pop-up company "by REVEAL" packs a lot into a 6-by-6-foot space: Carefully
chosen items from a number of inventive brands. Dressing rooms. Portability. Angled shelves that heighten
curiosity and drama from the exterior.
• Source: https://nrf.com/news/architecture-meets-retail-the-next-generation-of-pop-shops

10. RETAIL TRENDS / OCTOBER 2016 TRENDS
• UP ON THE ROOF
• It’s become quite chic for retail stores to operate rooftop gardens. Some use them as a nod to sustainable food production; others outfit them as café settings that welcome
consumers to drink and dine.
• HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
• The growing demand for handcrafted goods shows no signs of abating; nor does consumers’ desire to create. Both ideas make Zowoo, a Chinese workshop in Shanghai’s Joy City
Shopping Mall, a concept that retailers might want to consider in the context of their own businesse
• WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
• Approximately 40 percent of food in the United States goes to waste; sadly, that figure holds fast for most industrialized nations. In the United Kingdom, a new app is devoted to
reducing food waste. Too Good To Go links users with food that would otherwise be thrown away — at a heavily discounted pric
• MALLS DELIVER
• Seeking yet another example of the convergence of physical and digital retail? Look no further than the local mall — that is, if you live near one of the 15 East Coast shopping
centers that will offer AmazonLockers.
• NEW TWIST ON SHOPPING LISTS
• During the back-to-school rush, parents may have missed one of the most cutting-edge breakthroughs in shopping. Staples, the go-to resource for so many shoppers needing to
stock up on notebooks, pens and folders, conducted a beta test on the retailer’s mobile iOS app.
• MIRROR, MIRROR
• While models outfitted in the latest designer togs and celebrities seated in the front rows grabbed the headlines duringNew York Fashion Week, a new mirror quietly snagged its
share of attention among retailers. Samsung America debuted Mirror Displays — a technology that adds a new dimension to digital signage.
• “Digital signage is static. Mirror Displays use the power of digital to deliver messaging that can be updated regularly,” says Ron Gazzola, vice president of product marketing with
Samsung Electronics America. “It’s display technology that can help retailers stay competitive and enhance the in-store customer experience.”
• Source: https://nrf.com/news/stores-trends-october-2016