Global industry-related facts:
- Worldwide retail sales are estimated at $7 trillion (USD).
- The top 200 largest retailers account for 30% of worldwide demand.
- The money spent on household consumption worldwide increased 68% between 1980 and 1998.
- Retail sales are generally driven by people’s ability (disposable income) and willingness (consumer confidence) to buy.
- Approximately 2,000 companies voluntarily report on their economic, environmental and social policies, practices and performance.
- The 1998 UNDP Human Development Report points to the fact that advertising has global expenditures (including in developing countries) increasing faster than the world
economy, suggesting that the sector is becoming one of the major players in the development process.
- An Arthur D. Little survey of 481 executives world-wide published in 1999 found that 95% of managers believed that sustainable development offered real business value and
75% said that companies would have to make the required adjustments in vision and strategy. But only 19% said that their companies were “well down the road” in making
such changes
Regional retail industry facts:
- Some two-thirds or $6.6 trillion out of the $10 trillion American economy is consumer spending. About 40% of that ($3 trillion) is spending on discretionary products and
services.
- Retail turnover in the EU was almost €2,000 billion in 2001 and the sector’s better than average growth looks set to continue in the future.
- Retail trade in Europe employs 15% of the European workforce (3 million firms and 13 million workers)
- The Asian economies (excluding Japan) are expected to have 6% growth rates in 2005-6.
- US retail CEOs and senior executives are not very optimistic about the short-term future, according to the results of the NRF-BTM (National Retail Federation-Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi) Retail Executive Opinion Survey, a new monthly survey that indexes key aspects of industry operations. According to this survey, despite price-cutting, customer traffic still falls below normal levels, however of customers that are buying, it appears they are spending more per transaction.
- Positive forces at work in the retail consumer market today (by Plunkett Research, Ltd 2001-2002) include a high rate of personal expenditures, low interest rates, low unemployment and very low inflation. Negative factors which hold retail sales back include weakening consumer confidence, slowly increasing unemployment, growing numbers of store closings, decreasing levels of consumer household wealth due to stock
portfolios and 401k plans that have seen huge losses in the past year, consumers with record high debt levels are defaulting on credit card balances at an alarming rate,
volatility in global markets and significant continued layoffs at larger corporations require job migration and lead to large numbers of consumers employed as temp workers.

Consumers Expectations and Consumption Figures:
- Time and quality of life are becoming relatively more important than money; 60% of Americans want to simplify their lives.
- Product performance was found to be the top purchasing criterion, while environmental features were a close second in a survey performed by the alliance for Environmental
Innovation in conjunction with SC Johnson Wax.
- The total of United States-managed investment assets grew 22% from 1999 to 2001; socially screened assets under professional management grew by 36% in the same period,
suggesting the growing importance of social issues in investment.
- Consumers are becoming more purposeful in their buying behaviour according to a 2001 Ernst & Young paper. Another change in the retail industry is a drop in the number of
casual shoppers in department stores and malls.
- “An overwhelming majority [of PR professionals] believe that clients tend to underestimate the importance of PR/Communications in CSR.” According to a 2001
survey.
Global Consumption Facts and Figures:
- The world’s population is poised to expand 50% by 2050. The world is currently 78% poor, 11% middle income and 11% rich.
- World economic output more than doubled in the past 25 years, to about $33 trillion USD by 1999.
- The number of NGOs recorded by the Union of International Associations has more than doubled since 1985 and is now over 40,000 organisations, indicating a growing interest in social and environmental issues.