Growing worries and a slow economic rebound that centers around unemployment hovering near double-digits is not able to keep the wedding industry at the anemic lows experienced from 2008, through 2009 and most of 2010.
According to msnbc.com, shoppers cut back on spending for the second straight month. The Commerce Department said June retail sales fell 0.5 percent. That's worse than the 0.2 percent decline forecast by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. However, excluding autos, sales were down 0.1 percent, in line with expectations.
In contrast a newly released report by WE TV Network’s Wedding Report called The Wedding Index, the health of the wedding industry including demand and increased spending for goods and services are rebounding. The wedding index reflects the conditions and health of the wedding market. The index is part of the bi-annual State of the Industry survey of over 1000 wedding vendors nationwide that include 5 major indicators; Current Sales, Average Amount Spent, Couples Getting Married, Competitors, and Sales Expectations. Samples are collected through a multi-channel industry group called “Wedding Industry Survey Network (WISN), weddingindustry.org” and include vendors from multiple categories of all sizes within the industry.
eWedNews continues to hear vendor complaints that include price resistance but when digging deeper nearly all (that remain in business) say things are not as bad as they were. An interesting part of the index shows 48.9% of vendors reported an increase in the number of competitors in their market. The increase is felt to correlate the number of job losses and a return to self-employment and entrepreneurship. Also tied into the news is the exploding number of web sites diluting effectiveness.
eWedNews
All Rights Reserved
2010
Posted on 07/14/2010
Comments
Comments are the view of the comment poster, not the view of eWedNews. Please keep all comments relevant to the subject and respectful.
