MasterCard Spending Pulse shows small retailer rebound in November

Purchase, N.Y. -- A SpendingPulse report released Wednesday by MasterCard Advisors in partnership with Wells Fargo found that spending at small retailers in November picked up a percentage point since October, showing a 5.2% year over year improvement.



This was enough to put its growth rate from October to November at 0.7%, more than the growth rate of total U.S. retail sales.



The November report also found that when gasoline sales are removed, the year-over-year sales growth rate improved by 0.6%, rising to 5.8%, a considerable improvement over October’s 3.6% rate.



Michael McNamara, global solutions leader, MasterCard SpendingPulse said: “November sales were negatively impacted by weather events especially in the Northeast; however, across the country as a whole, smaller retailers showed a good rebound from the slowing growth in October. That said, November’s pick-up alone isn’t enough to stem the downward momentum in small business sales growth that we’ve been observing since February.”



On a year-to-date basis, the sales growth rate excluding auto for small retailers is 7.1% from January through November 2012, compared with a 5.3% growth rate for retail overall during the same time period.