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Report says retailers didn't get much love on Valentine's Day

According to the report, traffic declined year-over-year due to harsh weather across much of the country, and storefront conversion was negatively impacted by a less promotional environment.

March 5, 2015

Retail analytics firm Euclid Analytics has released its monthly retail benchmarks report that analyzed shopper activity and behavior during the month of February. This month’s report measured data from tens of millions of domestic shopping sessions to reveal that shopping activity decreased compared to last year. According to the report, traffic declined year-over-year due to harsh weather across much of the country, and storefront conversion was negatively impacted by a less promotional environment. In-store engagement improved year-over-year with the help of Valentine’s Day, but declined sequentially and failed to drive sales improvement.

Euclid estimates sales growth in the following retail verticals of:

• 2.3 percent decline year-over-year in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other (GAFO) retail sales
• 3.6 percent decline year-over-year in clothing and apparel sales
• 1.1 percent decline year-over-year in general merchandise sales

Some of the other findings in the report:

• Shopper traffic declined nearly one percent compared to the same month last year as the negative impact of harsh winter weather overshadowed increased Valentine’s Day shopping activity.
• Storefront conversion increased slightly year-over-year, but declined from January, as retailers were less promotional in February than recent months.
• Duration increased fifteen percent from last year, but the extra minutes spent in the store did not consistently translate into improved sales.
• Repeat visits increased slightly as Valentine’s Day shopping drove a bump in return visits.

The best shopping day of February was Sunday the 1st. The 1st experienced significantly higher traffic, storefront conversion, and average duration than last year. This day benefitted from Super Bowl Weekend activity and some early Valentine’s Day shopping. On the other hand, Tuesday February 17th was the worst shopping day of the month. The 17th experienced lower traffic and storefront conversion than any other day during the month. This day suffered from a lull after Valentine’s Day and President’s Day weekend.