ShopperTrak Report: Year-over-year weekly sales dip 0.6%

Chicago A report released Thursday by ShopperTrak said that year-over-year GAFO (general merchandise, apparel, furniture, sporting goods, electronics, hobby, books and other related store sales) retail sales declined 0.6% for the week ending July 31, while sales edged up 0.4% versus the previous week ending July 24.

According to ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), year-over-year sales dipped as retailers experienced the expected lull that arrives just prior to the back-to-school spending rush.  

ShopperTrak said it anticipates both sales and traffic to increase this week and it expects sales for the full back-to-school to season to increase 3.5% with total U.S. foot traffic sliding 1.4% for the period.

“Annually the days leading into back to school are slow, so retailers were most likely prepared for the flat sales and traffic performance last week,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. “The majority of these retailers already have back-to-school promotions in full swing, which should translate into strong numbers throughout the month of August, a period just behind the holiday season in terms of performance on the retail calendar.”