The Big Picture
It has been a great year for retail, and all signs point to a strong economy heading into 2025.
Inflation dropped to 2.4% last month, beating expectations, and unemployment remains low.
In further good news, the data we have so far points to a successful holiday season.
Over Black Friday weekend, online sales broke records, up 10% over last year, and total holiday sales grew 4.8% through the last week before Christmas, according to Visa’s Retail Spend Monitor.
November Trends
Among our Blacks’ clients, menswear posted a 9% gain in November, while women’s wear came in flat.
The women’s number is a bit misleading, since Ready-to-Wear posted a 6% gain for the month. However, the overall numbers were dragged down by a contraction in women’s Special Orders.
In men’s, Clothing categories continued to knock it out of the park, soaring 19% last month. Sportswear also did well, up 6%.
2025 Plans
We’re starting the new year getting ready for the fall markets. Ask yourself: how could I have spent my time and open-to-buy (OTB) more effectively last year? Identify the categories that were misses last season, not just the wins.
If you’re not doing it already, get more granular when it comes to analyzing your vendor structure and asking bigger questions, such as: Is my vendor matrix producing the margin I need to run my business?
Even if you had a good sell-thru rate last season, you need to understand if it was driven by markdowns, or if you were successful at selling at full price.
Try assigning OTB at the vendor level to make sure your investments are balanced toward the most profitable lines.
Blacks’ Bottom Line
Take some time to look at your key performance indicators from this year and set some realistic goals for 2025.
