In its new Retail Compass Survey of CFOs, BDO says the 100 retail CFOs it polled are forecasting a 3% gain in Holiday Season sales for 2011, the most upbeat prediction since 2007. Furthermore, same-store-sales projections for the second half of the year nearly doubled from 1.9% to 3.5% (source).
And the number expecting an uptick in the economy increased, even though 77% still thought the economy would continue to stagnate.
“Compared to all the headlines about gloom and doom, you have to take some solace in this prediction of 3%,” Doug Hart, partner in the retail and consumer product practice at BDO, tells Marketing Daily. “And these are CFOs at large retailers, so they are realists, and not overly optimistic. They’ve got live access to sales data.”