Consumer Trends

Latest news on consumer trends

Retail Sales

July retail sales show strong gains but stock market and tariffs could lead to caution in consumer spending

Retail sales were up 0.9 percent in July from June and up 5.6 percent year-over-year.

Consumer View

What consumers really think about retail technology

Consumers’ expectations surrounding technology and what they hope to see in the future.

Back to School

Record spending expected for school and college supplies

Record spending on school and college supplies expected this year

Consumer View

Technology is dramatically improving consumers’ shopping experience

New tech in retail is dramatically improving the consumer shopping experience

Consumer View

Consumer View Summer 2019

How today’s shoppers feel about emerging innovations like social shopping, voice assistants and augmented reality.

What's next

Retailers respond to tariff delay ahead of holiday season

The luck of the Irish

3 ways consumers are continuing to shop after the holidays

Procrastinators rush to meet holiday deadline

Last-minute holiday shopping

Explore more trends

Woman carrying shopping bags and smiling

NRF's Consumer View

NRF’s Consumer View is a quarterly look at what shapes retail, including how and why consumers make purchasing decisions and how retailers can adapt to changing consumer tastes.

Generation Z

All of NRF's research on the emerging generation of consumers — those born in 1995 and later.

Millennials

Millennials — those born between 1981 and 1994 — shop differently than other generations of consumers.

Want to get and edge over your competition? Sign up for NRF SmartBrief — a free daily newsletter filled with the day's top retail news and industry information.

Get SmartBrief