Sarah Halzack

If it wasn’t clear already, it ought to be now: Etsy Inc. is more than just a stay-at-home stock. The website for handmade goods became a go-to destination for face masks early in the pandemic thanks to quick pivots by its independent sellers to making this new necessity. That helped spark a…

The arrival of the pandemic forced retailers and consumer brands to spend much of 2020 solving immediate problems. Many had to take urgent steps to protect their liquidity. Some had to hire thousands of workers to support booming demand. Others had to figure out how to get toilet paper on shelves,…

If you could peek inside America’s cupboards and refrigerators, you’d see tableaus that capture changes wrought by the pandemic: Towers of paper goods, loads of comfort food, caches of upmarket coffee. You might also be surprised to see an unusual amount of seafood. Frozen seafood sales at US…

Americans are in the final sprint of a record year of e-commerce spending, filling their digital carts with holiday gifts and decor in a year when public health concerns are keeping them away from stores. That online haul, though, foreshadows an unfortunate aftershock for retailers: A potentially…

After the worst of the pandemic lockdowns in the spring, as the weather heated up and more people ventured outdoors to hit the golf links or hiking trails in US, Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. was in a prime position to benefit. The chain notched two quarters of booming comparable sales growth, with e…

There are many things retailers would like to forget about 2020. The new rhythm of the holiday shopping season shouldn’t be one of them. Cyber Monday accounted for $10.8 billion in online spending this year, according to Adobe Analytics, once again making the day the annual climax for online…

The US economy is badly wounded, and shoppers’ behavior remains cautious and unpredictable. The turbulent times, though, have created breakout moments for some stars of the consumer startup universe. Food-delivery heavyweight DoorDash Inc. filed for an initial public offering on Friday, signaling a…

At the onset of the pandemic, consumers almost overnight adopted a new set of shopping rituals. Judging from two major retail earnings reports on Tuesday, those habits haven’t loosened their grip. Walmart Inc. reported that its US comparable sales rose 6.4% from a year earlier in the quarter,…

Most years, the end of the retail industry’s sales calendar is defined by a tidy succession of seasonal events: back-to-school, Halloween and Christmas. With the pandemic, this isn’t an ordinary year. The result? Those shopping rituals are poised to converge into a super season of sorts in October,…