Colliers: Retail sales posted 3.7% growth in 2025
Holiday shopping and events such as Prime Day and Black Friday made up for lackluster spring and summer sales performance at retail, moving overall retail sales up by nearly 4%, according to a 2025 Recap Report from Colliers Retail Market Intelligence.
Volume growth, however, softened meaningfully (often below 1%) due to increasingly cautious consumer behavior. Shopper reliance on promotions, credit card usage, and value channels “underscored a consumer who remained active — yet highly selective,” read the report.
Consumers were guarding their pocketbooks last year. Foot traffic was highest at discount and dollars stores, with a 5% year-over-year rise to nearly 320 million visits.
Other categories with traffic increases at or above 3% included car washes, fitness centers, apparel and supermarkets.
Tenant segments whose footfalls fell by 2% or more were banks and financial services, medical centers and services, and drugstores.
Sales and visit tallies by category:
Apparel: Sales outperformed broader retail, growing by 5.5%, while foot traffic rose 4.2% and dwell times held near 40 minutes, signaling strong engagement and higher basket sizes driven by gifting and seasonal demand.
Beauty & Personal Care: Sales peaked to 8.1% in December, with dwell times averaging nearly 40 minutes — reflecting resilient, prestige-driven demand even amid softer traffic periods.
Department Stores: Sales fell by 1.3% in 2025, despite traffic rising 2.5% — underscoring structural challenges, store closures, and an inability to participate in broader retail rebounds meaningfully.
Electronics: In-store visits declined about 1% overall, with modest sales growth of 0.8% that turned negative outside promotional windows, highlighting deal-dependence and hesitancy around discretionary upgrades.
Entertainment: Visits swung from rebounds exceeding 80% to declines as steep as 27%. Dwell times remained elevated between 130 to 148 minutes, demonstrating strong engagement despite inconsistent frequency.
Furniture & Home Furnishings: Despite volatility throughout the year, full-year sales increased 2.3% and store visits rose slightly over 1% as big-ticket demand cooled and purchases became more intentional.
Grocery: Sales grew by 2.7%, largely inflation-driven, while traffic rose 3.1% with average dwell times of 23 minutes — reinforcing its role as a defensive anchor.
Home Improvement: While traffic spiked up to 28% during urgency-driven remodeling activity, the category ultimately finished the year down, with sales declining 1.3% and store visits decreasing 0.32%.
Restaurants: Sales increased 5.3% — mostly inflation-supported — while visits dipped slightly (under 1%), reflecting moderated frequency and continued at-home trade-offs rather than a complete pullback.
