RetailNext: July shopping trends show some improvement

San Jose, California – U.S. shopping trends showed some improvement in July 2014, although not all metrics experienced positive change, compared to the same month a year earlier. According to the RetailNext Insights Report of more than 13 million shopping trips in July 2014, sales per shopper increased 3.5% from July 2013.



However, brick-and-mortar retailers experienced an average year-over-year decline of 7.8% across traffic, which translated to a drop in sales of only 4.3%. Average transaction value (ATV) improved 6.7%, while conversion remained flat at -0.05%



In addition, Saturday, Aug. 2, when temperatures across the U.S. were the coolest since 2009, limiting demand for warm-weather categories, marked the highest levels of traffic, transactions, sales, and ATV. Monday, July 21, when weather patterns were relatively dry and warm across the U.S., marked the lowest traffic, transactions, sales/shopper, and ATV.



Regionally, consistent upticks in sales per shopper (SPS) allowed physical retailers to limit sales declines despite reductions in traffic and flat conversions.