Study: Retail sales, traffic, transactions drop in May

San Jose, Calif. – Retail sales dropped 7.6% in May 2015 compared to the same month the prior year. According to the monthly Store Performance Pulse from store analytics provider RetailNext, a 9.8% decrease in traffic and 8.3% drop in transactions drove the sales decline.



Much of these declines were concentrated in the third week of the month, leading to an earlier-than-usual Memorial Day weekend.



However, some metrics showed year-over-year improvement. The conversion rate rose 0.5%, average transaction value grew 0.8% and sales per shopper increased 2.5%. RetailNext says these figures indicate growing shopper commitment.



The Saturday before Mother’s Day, May 9, showed the highest sales, traffic and transaction figures for the month, which is consistent historically. The highest conversions and sales per shopper occurred the Friday before Mother’s Day, May 8. The lowest traffic and sales occurred toward the end of the month, coming out of the long Memorial Day weekend.