If you take a step back and place it within the broader macroeconomic context, the U.S. retail sector is looking better than the many apocalyptic headlines would have you think. That’s the message of Rhetoric vs. reality: Quantifying the long-term outlook for U.S. mall sales, a new report by QIC.

“When we looked around at the sector, most of the research was fairly isolated and piecemeal,” says Matthew Peter, chief economist at QIC. The new report, which quantifies both tailwinds and headwinds across the sector, is aimed at filling that gap in the literature.

As an example of a robust economic indicator, growth in consumer spending is a key element of the retail sector’s health, and all signs point to that measure continuing to stay on the rise. That creates a strong backdrop for retail performance, even as e-commerce penetration increases.

“There’s no doubt that e-commerce penetration is going to continue, going forward, almost as aggressiv