Omnichannel

Retailer inventory piles on the decline

Adobe Stock

May 30, 2023

The midway point of 2023 brings good news regarding the swelling and challenging merchandise inventory retailers have been grappling with for most of a year: stockpiles are getting smaller.

That's the take from earnings calls of big retailers including Walmart, Target, Home Depot and TJX Companies, according to a Yahoo Finance report.

At Target the level dipped 16% from 2022, and the figure was 8% at TJX Companies, whose brand umbrella includes Marshalls and HomeGoods.

"We're way past the peak [on inventory]," Bernstein Analyst Aneesha Sherman told Yahoo! Finance Live. "Many leading brands and retailers have cleared it off their balance sheets."

With inventory challenges less of a hurdle retailers can put resources and more time toward other retail goals such as boosting store traffic, expanding customer engagement and merchandise strategy in the aisles.