From Unity Marketing

Through August 2015, retail sales excluding automobiles and food services, trail that from last year by .4 percent. To date, retail sales of $2.327,435 million lags the $2,337,399 million spent at retail through August 2014.

Source: Census, Advanced Monthly Retail Sales & Unity Marketing

If retailers hope to overcome these trends in the fourth quarter, they will need to do something big and something fast, and it isn't offering more discounts. Consumers vote with their wallets and they reward retailers that deliver more of what they really want, and it isn't more of the same.

Tap the Trends that Will Bring You More “Votes”

These trends at retail reveal what affluent consumers want and where they are spending their money. They point to key strategies for marketers to align their products and services with shifts in consumer needs, desires, attitudes and priorities.

Let's look at what the trends in consumer spending say about today's customers:

Consumers want convenience-- A Greek philosopher said "Time is the most valuable thing a man [or woman] can spend." It was true then and true now. When all things are equal, shoppers will choose to shop online. No wasted time, no crowds, no parking hassles, no traipsing up and down aisle looking for something they want. Online they can search it quickly, click it off and have it delivered to the door. Then they can get on living their lives.

How can you attract customers to your store to invest what they value most --their time -- with you? Clearly, your shopping experience most offer them more than just some product to buy, but an experience that will make their time spent worthwhile.

Consumers want more fun- People are making more time for fun, their past times, hobbies & recreation, so they are spending more on travel, music, flowers, luggage, motorcycles & airplanes, pets, sporting goods and bicycles. Today's consumers, especially the Millennials, crave a work-life balance.

The key opportunity for marketers is how to align your brand, your products, your services with people's need for fun & recreation.

Consumers are investing more in their home- People are spending to transform their home to a more comforting & comfortable place. Home is becoming a retreat, an emotional anchor, a refuge, a safe haven to raise families. And they are increasingly reluctant to leave their home to go shopping.

How can your brand, your products, your shopping experience to enhance people's comfort, enjoyment, pleasure in their home, and when they are out shopping?

Consumers buy things to make them happy- The key question is how can your brand, your products, your services deliver more value for the asking price? How can you enhance happiness, pleasure, comfort, make them feel rewarded [i.e. all unquantifiable] by their spending?

How can you deliver the maximum happiness return on customers' monetary investment? In other words, how can you make shopping more fun for the customer?