Burt Feinberg, President of CIT Corporate Finance - Commercial & Industrial offers his outlook and views on the retail sector. Learn more by visiting http://www.cit.com/perspectives/executive-insights/retails-changing-landscape/index.htm.

1. KEY TRENDS TO WATCH
IN THE RETAIL SECTOR
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Consumer Confidence Is on the Rise:
Consumer spending is at pre-recession levels, and disposable personal
income on a per capita basis is up as well. Additionally, consumer debt is
gradually increasing.
Upswing in Housing Market Will Play a Role:
Big box home hard goods players and home furnishings are doing well as
the real estate market has improved. New households being created has also
helped home furnishing stores.
4 M&A Activity for Retailers Slowly Picking Up:
M&A activity in the first quarter was down relative to last year. However,
there’s a reasonable amount of activity right now in the marketplace that
should continue to pick up.
5 Emphasis on Staying Relevant to the Consumer:
Retailers want to make sure the customer keeps coming through the door
and are utilizing digital, ecommerce and social media strategies to do so.
These strategies help companies stay relevant and stay in front of their
customer.
3 Retail Is Still Appealing to Private Equity:
Private equity (PE) firms still like retail because it’s scalable and has quick
growth potential. If a PE firm can identify a new retail concept that has been
developed by a family or a privately held group of original owners, it can
bring its resources and experience to the business. PE firms can help identify
new locations, professionalize sourcing, product and inventory management,
and can help implement multi-channel delivery and customer mining on the
ecommerce side.
Learn More: www.cit.com/feinberg