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Data from sales registers shows Black Friday down over last year

November sales comps before the holiday were positive, suggesting that consumers began their holiday shopping earlier this year.

December 5, 2014

Cloud-based analytics software company Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) has announced that in-store sales for Black Friday Weekend were down (-3.5 percent), according to data from the APT Index of U.S. same-store retail sales. November sales comps before the holiday were positive (+1.1 percent), suggesting that consumers began their holiday shopping earlier this year.

The APT Index includes a subset of APT's $2 trillion in annual sales data, according to the company. The Index aggregates data from sales registers across the U.S. to show how year-over-year performance changes for same-store sales in the physical channel.

"The APT Index showed a decrease in retail sales for Black Friday Weekend, but earlier in the month, we're seeing comps up," said Patrick O'Reilly, APT President & COO. "It's interesting to see that shoppers may be taking advantage of earlier holiday promotions."

The nationwide APT Index of same-store retail sales indicated that sales decreased (-3.5 percent) on Black Friday Weekend, driven by a decrease in number of transactions (-2.7 percent). November sales before Thanksgiving, however, were up (+1.1 percent) according to the APT Index, suggesting that customers may have begun their holiday shopping earlier.

Black Friday Weekend retail sales comps varied among the Top 25 metro areas. The metro areas where the APT Index showed retailers performing the best were: Riverside, CA with a (+0.3 percent) sales increase; Philadelphia, PA (-0.7 percent); and Tampa, FL (-0.7 percent). The areas where the APT Index showed retail sales performing the worst were: Minneapolis, MN (-10.6 percent), St. Louis, MO (-9.0 percent), and Seattle, WA (-7.8 percent).