Graduation Year

2018

Date of Submission

12-2017

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Murat Binay

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© 2017 Caroline J. Chmiel

Abstract

Retail store closures are on pace to pass those during the 2008 recession; meanwhile, consumer confidence is strong and unemployment is low.This puzzling situation sparks the question of how retailers can change their current business models and tactics to capitalize on a stronger economy and changing consumer preferences. Key solutions may lie in the strategies and decisions of America’s fastest growing retailers. The purpose of this study is to identify and understand common trends that are driving revenue growth in today’s consumer retail companies. The study produces characteristics useful for struggling retailers to develop and adapt in hopes of achieving growth and stability in the changing retail sector. The research design is a collection of variables from two data sets, one made up of 220 U.S. retailers and the other including the top 50 fastest-growing publicly traded U.S. retailers. This data comes from respective 10-K annual reports. The data is analyzed using STATA to identify strong trends and correlations among the top players in the retail space. Some notable characteristics are revenue in dollars, revenue growth percentages, gross margin percentages, square footage, employee count and sales ratios in dollars.

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