General Retail Sites
- The Association of Resale Professionals – the Association serves thrift, resale, and consignment shops of all types
- Chain Store Age – online version of industry trade magazine. Includes industry research.
- Discount Store News
- National Association of Retail Merchandising
- National Retail Federation – primary trade association. Research, directories and educational programs available for independent retailers.
- Retail Owners Institute – emphasis on the basics of retail finance, inventory management and cash flow control.
- Retail store financial data from Retail Owners Institute including inventory turnover trends, gross margin, pre-tax profit, debt-to-worth ratio, current ratio and return on assets for over 50 retail industry segments.
- Retail Trade Statistics – from the 1997 Economic Census.
- Retail Trade Associations – provides a listing of associations with contact info for each.
- Stores Magazine – retail technology news, market research, e-commerce and trends influencing the retail industry. Full report on global online retailing available in the archive section.
- Specialty Retail Blog – retailer-focused industry blog covering identify trends, free webinars on how to hold better events, and motivational topics.
Articles about selecting a retail site:
Bookstore
- How to Make it Big With a Used Bookstore – short report on used bookstores.
- Independent Online Booksellers Association includes association newsletter.
- Ipsos Booktrends statistics on particular genres and book sales in general.
- Bookweb Statistics from the American Booksellers Association.
Convenience Stores
- CSNews Online – this site has informative information on the trends in the convenience store and truck stop marketplace.
- CSPNet Magazine – online version of CSP Magazine.
- CSDecisions – convenience store news, trends, and products.
- National Association of Convenience Stores NACS) – major industry trade association
- Industry Report on Gas Stations prepared by SBDCNet (pdf format).
Drug Stores
- National Association of Chain Drug Stores – association for drug store industry.
Grocery
- Food Marketing Institute (FMI) – operating costs, average salaries, consumer expenditures and other useful statistics for the grocer (see Facts & Figures section).
- Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) – this site provides some facts and stats on the food industry.
- National Grocer’s Association – provides training and certification materials and also industry news
Hardware/DIY Stores
- National Retail Hardware Association – research industry statistics on this association’s site.
- Home Center News the web site for the trade journal.
Outdoor Products Stores
Vending
- National Automatic Merchandising Association includes articles about the vending machine industry
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
