Shop Around: Web-based Resources for the Retail Industry

The retail sector touches on a vast array of businesses, from the manufacturers who produce the actual goods sold through retail outlets, to those who provide distribution, administrative, and marketing services to them. Information professionals in many types of research centers may be called to find data on the retail industry. Fortunately, the field of web-based sources for U.S. retail industry research is growing, as more associations, trade publications, and government agencies publish studies, articles, and data releases online.

Bet on Association Sites

Major associations are one of the best bets for finding good, current research materials in the retail industry. The National Retail Association (http://www.nrf.com)—which publishes a number of studies and surveys of retail finance, information technology, merchandising, pricing, and best practices, along with salary surveys and other helpful pieces—now makes some documents available, for a fee, in downloadable format on its site. Also linked from the NRF's site is its STORES magazine (http://www.stores.org), a monthly publication on retail operations. The current issue is online in full-text; recent issues may be searched by keyword.

IMRA (http://www.imra.org), the International Mass Retail Association, publishes its press releases tracking holiday spending and other retail news on its site. Additionally, IMRA provides annotated lists of its research publications on consumer behavior, benchmarking, and compliance for retailers. The site also features a listing, by product category, of retailers selling over the Internet, with links to their sites, and a storehouse of Y2K information and links for retailers.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (http://www.icsc.org) publishes press releases and detailed write-ups on retail activity by format in the U.S., and by region, state, and major metropolitan area. Data related to shopping centers can be found in the Scope USA and Scope Canada areas (http://www.icsc.org/rsrch/research.html), and more retail statistics, such as results and implications of the ICSC's annual "Retail Ownership Scorecard," reside under White Papers (http://www.icsc.org/srch/rsrch/wp/index.html). The EcoFacts section graphs major monthly economic indicators to the most currently available month, and also includes retail-specific indicators in a comparative chart format (http://www.icsc.org/srch/ecofacts/current/index.html).

Industry conferences, events, and trade shows are listed at the NRF (http://www.nrf.com/events) and IMRA (http://www.imra.org/conf.html) sites, and fashion and apparel trade shows can be found at the Women's Wear Daily (WWD) site (http://www.wwd.com/meetings.cfm).

Trades Host Some Online Data Gems

Trade magazines are a rich source of information and insight on the retail industry. Many sites upload their current issues in full-text and make archived issues available for searching, too. Some publications, like Chain Store Age(http://www.chainstoreage.com), enhance their web offerings with data, research write-ups, and useful industry information. Chain Store Age's research area contains industry data by retail format, a glossary of retail terms, and an annual "State of the Industry" financial report. Lists of the top 100 chain stores, top global retailers, and an industry calendar are also helpful, although some information is dated.

Discount Store News (DSN) at (http://www.discountstorenews.com) also offers some good industry sales data by store type, including store counts of retailers and average store size. The site includes a growing list of retailers online with their corresponding hyperlinks, current stock prices of leading retailers, and a calendar of industry events, along with DSN's current issue online and a searchable archive.

The Fairchild Publications site (http://www.fairchildpub.com) links to Fairchild's several important industry publications, including WWD, DNR (Daily News Record), and HFN (Home Furnishings News). Although the sites feature some articles from current issues of these titles, they unfortunately do not allow for archive searching. The page also links to a long list of Fairchild's monograph publications, which can be subsequently ordered from the publisher.

For Breadth, Hit Government Sites

Every five years, the U.S. Census Bureau surveys domestic retail establishments for its resultant Census of Retail Trade. In 1992, over 1.5 million establishments totaling nearly $1.5 trillion in sales were represented. This most comprehensive survey consists of a Geographic Area Series, a ZIP Code Statistics Series (available only on CD-ROM at this time), a Nonemployer Statistics Series, and Subject Series. The Census is "the only source of detailed industry and geographic data on sales, sales by merchandise line, and key industry-specific measures." Data from the most recent Census is downloadable in PDF format at (http://www.census.gov/prod/www/titles.html#rt).

The Census Bureau's Annual Benchmark Report for Retail Trade, January 1988 through December 1997 (http://www.census.gov/prod/3/98pubs/br-97rv.pdf) aggregates data from its Monthly Retail Sales & Inventories, a report providing estimates of sales and inventories by retail establishment and kind-of-business. The Annual Benchmark Report is a handy source for ratios, margins, and sales data, including Internet sales. Historical Monthly Reports are also available back to 1986 at (http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/monret.html). Advance Monthly Retail Sales reports, with data from 1988 to the present, downloadable into spreadsheet format, reside at (http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/advtable.html).

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), an agency of the Commerce Department, hosts a site showcasing some of its key data and publications on the national, international and U.S. regional economies (http://www.bea.doc.gov). Of interest to retail industry researchers will be BEA news releases and the site's quick "Overview of the U.S. Economy," as well as national industry data, such as GDP estimates by industry, international trade, and investment data. State data here include state GDP by industry, state income and employment statistics and projections, and facts about states and counties.

The BEA's site includes full-text issues of its Survey of Current Business from 1998 through the present, plus subject guides of the publication back to 1995. STAT-USA/Internet (http://www.stat-usa.gov), the Commerce Department's online subscription service of its Economics and Statistics Administration agency, is a multi-site source of trade, economic, and market information. For a subscription fee of $150/year, a single searcher can access the National Trade Data Bank's trade leads, market and country research (including country commercial guides), import and export data, and miscellaneous reports in the International Trade Library. Site licenses are costlier, of course, with fees determined by size of the user base.

In its "State of the Nation" section, STAT-USA/Internet offers economic data, including employment and monetary statistics, as well as indicators, Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index, productivity, housing and manufacturing, and industry data. Even without a subscription, users can now purchase the service's "most popular reports and releases" online, from STAT-USA/Internet's home page.

For import and export data on specific products, one good site is the U.S. International Trade Commission's ITC Trade Data Web (http://20.197.120.17). Trade and tariff information by product, as well as information on trading partner/country, is available.

Other helpful government sources are linked from FEDSTATS (http://www.fedstats.gov), a site organizing the statistical data produced by more than seventy federal agencies. Standard government reference sources linked from FEDSTATS's "Fast Facts" section include the Statistical Abstract and the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book.

Most Syndicateds Lack Free Info

Some market research sites, such as Euromonitor (http://www.euromonitor.com) and FindSVP (http://www.findsvp.com), allow browsing of their reports' tables of contents or abstracts. Euromonitor now prices reports on its web site by sections, so purchase decisions can be easily made. The NPD Group (http://www.npd.com), which tracks a range of retail purchases through both consumer panel and point-of-sale data, publishes press releases and data from some market studies on its site.

Information Resources, Inc. (http://www.infores.com) does not offer much besides its product information. AC Nielsen (http://acnielsen.com/world/unitedst/), on the other hand, publishes studies on frequent shoppers, category management, and channels for downloading from its site.

For both topline and more detailed information on U.S. retail, government sites provide a number of strong data tools online. Associations and trade publications are also good places to start research on the retail industry. Sites are becoming increasingly better organized, and at the least the government, association, and trade press sites mentioned here provide lists of publications and contact telephone numbers for ordering and for further questions. With the current interest in electronic commerce, researchers can expect more coverage of this phenomenon on conventional retail sites, while expanding their searches to include more specialized sources in "e-tailing." Learning the strengths of a few good retail sites can save time in researching this broad, important, and growing sector.

Jean Keleher is a practice research specialist at A.T. Kearney, Chicago. She earned her M.L.S. from the University of Michigan. She can be reached atjean.keleher@kearney.com .