Study: Easter shift hurts April retail sales

San Jose, Calif. – The shift of the Easter shopping season to March 2015 from April 2014 (Easter fell on April 5, 2015, the first day of fiscal April) had a substantial negative impact on year-over-year retail sales results. According to the RetailNext Retail Performance Pulse, sales dropped 12.5% compared to the same month a year earlier, while sales per shopper (SPS) actually increased 2.4%.



Other results were similarly mixed. Traffic fell 9.4% and transactions declined 7.2%. However, return rate stayed flat while conversion rate increased 0.7% and average transaction value (ATV) climbed 2.5%.



Looking at performance of individual days, Saturday, April 25, showed the highest sales and traffic of the fiscal month, while conversions and SPS were highest Friday, May 1. Easter Sunday, April 5, had the lowest scores across all metrics. Excluding Easter, the lowest sales occurred Monday, April 20, while the lowest traffic and transactions occurred Monday, April 13.