Consumer Behavior

April retail sales worse than March thanks to COVID-19

Photo by istock.com

May 19, 2020

 March may have been a tough month for retailers, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, but April was much worse, according to data from the National Retail Federation.

In fact, April retail sales dipped nearly twice as much as the prior month, according to a press release on the NRF figures. NRF's calculation of retail sales — which excludes automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants — showed April was down 14.1% seasonally adjusted from March and down 8.7% unadjusted year-over-year.

“As predicted, retail sales were bad in April and lower than in March," NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said in the release. "This should come as no surprise since April was the first full month when most businesses not considered essential were closed, both in retail and across the economy. But month-to-month comparisons provide little insight other than indicating that most of the economy was on lockdown. Now that we're in mid-May, many businesses are already starting to reopen. Relief payments and pent-up demand should provide some degree of post-shutdown rebound, but spending will be far from normal and may be choppy going forward. I'm still of the opinion that we went into this with the economy on a sound footing and that we will hopefully come out of it the same," Kleinhenz said. "But we’re going to need more data to tell us whether the underpinnings of the economy have been damaged and how badly. We need to carefully watch the data and learn to understand what it is telling us."

Other data findings include:
•    Online and other non-store sales were up 21.2% unadjusted year-over-year and up 8.4% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    Grocery and beverage stores were up 13.3% unadjusted year-over-year but down 13.1% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    Building materials and garden supply stores were up 1.2% unadjusted year-over-year but down 3.5% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    Health and personal care stores were down 10.8% unadjusted year-over-year and down 15.2% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    General merchandise stores were down 13.8% unadjusted year-over-year and down 20.8% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    Sporting goods stores were down 48.7% unadjusted year-over-year and down 38% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    Electronics and appliance stores were down 64.8% unadjusted year-over-year and down 60.6% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    Furniture and home furnishings stores were down 66.3% unadjusted year-over-year and down 58.7% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.
•    Clothing and clothing accessory stores were down 89.3% unadjusted year-over-year and down 78.8% month-over-month seasonally adjusted.