design:retail - October 2016 - 56

056 RETAIL DESIGN INDUSTRY 2016 SPONSORED BY: By JESSIE DOWD ith sensationalized stories about store closures pitted against new store concept announcements and expansions mucking up the media's sea of headlines, it can sometimes be difficult to get an accurate read on how our industry is faring. So what better way to gauge the industry's health than to head straight to the source? We reached out to our readers-retail's CEOs, store planners, contract designers, visual merchandisers, SVPs and other key players-to find out just how the retail design industry is doing in 2016 and get down to the nitty gritty. And guess what? It's looking pretty good! We don't think that makes the most exciting headline, but sometimes "pretty good" can be pretty great. For the eighth annual Retail Design Industry Survey, design:retail reached out to our readers- from SVPs and CEOs to store planners, visual merchandisers, contract designers and everyone in between-to get a reading on how the industry as a whole has fared this year. Successes, challenges and predictions for the future were all shared. Read on for a true barometer on the retail design industry. MORE NEW STORES, LESS CLOSURES Overall, the retail design industry has maintained an upbeat and positive outlook on the current economic situation, with about a third (30.7 percent) of companies responding that their situation is "Excellent/Very Good" this year, about the same level as last year. Another 46.4 percent OCTOBER 2016 DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM responded that their situation is "Good," a slight increase from 42.77 percent who said so last year. What's more, many retailers and design firms are planning for continued steady growth for their businesses, with nearly half of respondents (46.5 percent) planning to increase capital spending in the next 12 months, and another 39.5 percent said their company is not planning on making significant changes in capital spending in the next 12 months (just 14 percent expect to decrease capital spending in the next year). In terms of growth, half of survey respondents (50 percent) indicated that they opened 1-25 new stores in 2016. This stat is down slightly from last year's 57.14 percent, but that's because retailers opened even more new stores in 2016-4.9 percent GLOBALSHOP.ORG opened 101-250 stores (versus 3.57 percent in 2015), 2.4 percent opened 251-500 stores (versus 1.19 percent in 2015), and 3.7 percent opened more than 500 stores (compared to 0 percent last year). The growth looks like it will continue on in 2017, with 43 percent of companies planning to open the same number of new stores as 2016, while 31.6 percent of respondents plan on opening more new stores in 2017 than in 2016. Our readers reported that store closures, believe it or not, are actually decreasing. Nearly half of respondents (48 percent) reported closing no stores in 2016 (that's even less closures than 2015, when 39.51 percent indicated they closed no stores), and another 36 percent said they closed just 1-10 locations. For 2017, 56.9 percent of companies plan to http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG

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