As per Craig Johnson, President, Customer Growth Partners, though retail sales lost momentum last month, the market seems to be turning around.

In February this year, sales at department stores fell by a seasonally adjusted 8.4 per cent from January and by 14.5 percent from a year ago, reports Sourcing Journal. Sales at apparel and accessories specialty stores slipped by 2.8 percent between February and January and were down by 11.3 percent from a year earlier.

Sales of non-store retailers plunged by 5.4 percent from January, but increased by 25.9 percent from a year earlier.

Overall retail and food service sales decreased by 3 percent from a month earlier, worse than the 0.7 percent drop economists projected.

Despite this, optimism prevailed in the market as consumers started to make up for the lost. Their efforts were boosted by the government’s promise of stimulus checks and hopes that vaccines will bring life back to normal. Compared to a year earlier,retail and food service sales increased by 6.3 percent in February.

Johnson had previously predicted annual apparel sales would fall by 9 percent this year. However now, he plans to revise his predictions favorably if the recent trend continues.