ShopperTrak: April 2012

Total U.S. shopper traffic in retail stores and malls for April 2012

Warm weather and shifting holidays in March caused retail foot traffic to dip in April. Retail foot traffic in April was 7.6% lower from March, and 2.7% lower on a year-over-year basis. The slow April is the first in the past 3 months to experience a decline in year-over-year and month-over-month retail foot traffic.



April 2012 didn’t receive the kind of boost in retail foot traffic that April 2011 did from Easter. The holiday fell late in the month and preceded Mother’s Day by only two weeks. The late Easter and early Mother’s Day created a window of shopping time that consolidated the bulk of shopping for both holidays into April 2011.



Also, because March’s weather was so unseasonably warm, many shoppers took to the streets and bought their spring wears before April arrived. This meant that although April too experienced above-average temperatures, most consumers had already spent their shopping dollars.



Many retailers should anticipate increased traffic in May leading up to Mother’s Day. ShopperTrak predicts that national retail sales, when compared to the same period last year, will rise 6% in the week leading up to Mother’s Day, and retail foot traffic will increase 3.7%.







ShopperTrak's data and analyses in this article is based on counting billions of shoppers in more than 45,000 locations across 74 countries. ShopperTrak is a leading retail technology company that anonymously counts people, analyzes data and identifies opportunities to increase revenue for retailers, mall developers and entertainment venues. Find out more at http://www.shoppertrak.com.