September 2018 US Retail Sales and Traffic: Clothing Retailers Lead Growth

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 September Retail Traffic report:

• Total US retail sales including automobiles and gasoline increased by 4.4% on a year-over-year basis in September, according to the US Census Bureau.
• Retail sales increased marginally, by 0.4%, month over month in September, on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
• Changes in store-based sales and traffic remained negative in September. While conversion rate declined, by 0.2%, for the first time in six months, both average transaction value (0.3%) and return rates (0.3%) grew marginally according to RetailNext. Retail traffic declined 7.1% year over year during September which is the steepest decline since April.