News

Shopper visits drop 10 percent, but sales are up

July 9, 2014

In-store retail analytics firm Euclid has released its monthly retail benchmarks report to analyze shopper activity and behavior during the month of June. This month’s report measured data from tens of millions of domestic shopping sessions to reveal that shoppers made fewer trips because of events like the World Cup, Father’s Day and extended vacations. However, high levels of consumer confidence boosted shoppers’ spending habits.

The company said that its metrics illustrate a positive outlook for industry revenues, and estimates sales growth in the following retail verticals of:

• 2 percent growth year-over-year in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other (GAFO) retail sales
• 4 percent growth year-over-year in clothing and apparel sales
• 1 percent growth year-over-year in general merchandise sales

Here are some of the findings in this month’s report around shopper behavior metrics:

• Shopper traffic declined nine percent compared to the same month last year, as vacations, holidays, and record-breaking World Cup viewership cannibalized time spent on shopping related activities.
• Storefront conversion was up slightly as this June remained more promotional than last year, driven by competition and relatively high inventories.
• Average duration increased eight percent from last year. June realized pent up demand from May as disposable income continued to grow and consumer confidence rose. Summer sales and nicer weather also contributed to the improvement.
• Repeat visits decreased slightly year-over-year due to the same factors that affected traffic, but this trend was outweighed by the benefit of higher engagement.

The best day of June was Monday the 2nd, with outperformance across all metrics except for active repeat ratio as the month started with a flurry of activity. Not surprisingly, Sunday the 15th—Father’s Day—was the worst shopping day of the month. The lowest level of traffic and low storefront conversion were experienced as vacations and family activities cannibalized mall visits.

To view the complete findings, download the full report on shopper activity for the month of June here.