The overall U.S. retail availability rate fell to at least an 18-year low in Q3 2023, per CBRE.
The lifestyle and mall availability rate fell 20 bp year-on-year to 6%.
Along with malls, big-box stores are also forecast to see a strong 2024.
FINANCE
It wasn’t the good year that everyone was expecting 2023 to be, but at the same time major economies managed to dodge a recession (despite economists continued warnings … ).
The business outlook heading into 2024 is more subdued than it was a year ago. Even companies that performed well in 2023, including ‘guidance’ that Q4 and early 2024 was likely to be ‘challenging’ due to economic headwinds.
- Inflation has fallen to near target levels in most markets.
- There is growing speculation that central banks will start to cut rates as soon as early Q2.
PODCAST
Coping with Information Overload
After nearly 4 years of interviewing incredibly talented people, in this podcast I pass the mic to the amazing Kenz Soliman, and I sit down as a guest!
Kenz is a business trailblazer with 150,000 students on Udemy, founder of the Focus Hive coworking group and creator of a wealth of trainings for entrepreneurs.
We’ll be discussing:
- The vision behind Inside Fashion’s mission to beat information overload.
- The challenge of finding a balanced point of view in a noisy world.
- Facing the burnout of ‘decision fatigue’.
RETAIL
Early holiday sales figures point to a season that wasn’t setting spending records, but did beat last year.
- U.S. retail sales increased 3.1 percent year-over-year this holiday season, according to preliminary insights from Mastercard SpendingPulse
- UK retail sales (excluding auto) for the holiday period running from November 1 – December 24 were up 2.6% year-on-year, per Mastercard SpendingPulse. In-store sales were up 3.5%, while online sales were down 2.8%
MARKETS
People are generally optimistic about 2024, per a global predictions survey from Ipsos that included feedback from 34 countries.
“The world is still pretty downbeat, but we seem to be on track for getting back to more typical levels of sentiment about the present and the immediate future,” Ipsos wrote.
- 53% say 2023 was a bad year for them and 70% say it was a bad year for their country. This is the lowest level since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
- 70% think next year will be a better year than this one. This is an increase of 5pp on last year’s figure.
- More people think AI will lead to more jobs being lost than being created in 2024.
- A majority (59%) think we’ll spend more time working in the office in 2024 than working at home.
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