U.S. foot traffic falls 3.0% in October

Chicago ShopperTrak RCT Corp.’s Retail Traffic Index reported on Wednesday that total U.S. foot traffic for the month of October fell 3.0%, while the company’s National Retail Sales Estimate reported retail sales slipped a slight 0.4% for the same period.

Although U.S. foot traffic levels once again dropped in October, monthly declines continue to narrow as the holiday shopping season approaches, with October posting the smallest year-over-year decline in over a year. In the four months prior to October, traffic declined 12.2 % (June); 9.7% (July); 7.7% (August) and 5.2% (September).

“Just as we saw in September, yearly traffic levels continued to improve last month and while this is generally expected heading into the holiday shopping season it is still a positive sign for retailers following the gloomy retail picture over the last year,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. “We will see a definite increase in holiday sales and promotions over the next two weeks as Black Friday approaches, which should continue providing a nice traffic and sales boost for November.”

On a weekly level, ShopperTrak’s NRSE reported sales for the week ending Nov. 7 rose 0.1% compared with last year, while weekly sales increased 4.8% versus the previous seven-day period ending Oct. 31.