July 2023

For retailers clearing out spring/summer goods to make room for back-to-school merchandise, the dog days of summer are already here. Price promotions in June through the Fourth of July period have intensified for a lot of stores, at levels at or above last 12 months. They’re trumpeting discounts of fifty to 60 percent off, sometimes at the same time as high as 70 percent off, with the most important deals seen online versus in stores. Despite retailers actively bringing inventories down, markdowns are most noticeable within the casual and profession sportswear categories across men’s, women’s and youngsters’s, in addition to in handbags and even swimwear, where sell-throughs generally haven’t lived as much as expectations. By price promoting early, retailers hope to...