Year-over-year retail sales rise 0.2% for week

Chicago ShopperTrak reported in Tuesday’s National Retail Sales Estimate that year-over-year retail sales for the week ending April 4 increased a slight 0.2%.

Weekly sales rose 0.6%, vs. the previous week ending March 28.

The year-over-year increase marks the first time in 2009 that year-over-year sales have risen in consecutive weeks, as shoppers took advantage of various seasonal promotions. Although both yearly and weekly sales posted very slim increases, retail performance was most likely hindered by continued cool weather and a series of late winter storms in parts of the country last week.

“However slight, two weeks of year-over-year sales increases should been seen as positive for retailers, although our data suggests this trend most likely won’t continue throughout April,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. “We expect GAFO retail sales will post gains this week as shopping activity peaks for Easter, then the following week ending April 18 will experience losses as the period contains Easter Sunday, a day with very little shopping.”