October 2018 US Retail Sales and Traffic: Retail Sales Growth Strengthens and Traffic Decline Eases

Key Points

Coresight Research’s monthly reports keep you up to date on US and UK retail sales, US retail traffic and in-store metrics, selected US retailers’ same-store sales and key global consumer indicators. Click here to view our full collection of Monthly Reports.

Our US Monthly Retail Sales and Traffic Report reviews year-over-year changes in selected store-based metrics, including sales, traffic and conversion rates.

Highlights from our October Retail Traffic report:

• Total US retail sales including automobiles and gasoline increased 4.3% on a year-over-year basis in October, according to the US Census Bureau. This was up from 3.8% year-over-year growth in September.
• Retail sales increased 0.9% month over month in October, on a seasonally adjusted basis.
• Changes in store-based sales and traffic stayed negative in October. While the conversion rate declined 0.3%, average transaction value grew 2.9%, the largest increase in the past year. Product returns grew 0.5%, recording its largest increase since November last year, according to RetailNext. Retail traffic declined 5.3% year over year during October.