News

Shopping activity rebounded slightly in October, but not enough for year-over-year growth

Traffic increased only marginally compared to last year, despite a much better macro-economic environment than last October, and repeat visits were down significantly.

November 12, 2014

Retail in-store analytics firm Euclid has released its monthly retail benchmarks report to analyze shopper activity and behavior during the month of October. According to the company, this month’s report measured data from tens of millions of domestic shopping sessions to reveal that shopping activity rebounded slightly from September, but not enough to drive positive year-over-year sales growth. Traffic increased only marginally compared to last year, despite a much better macro-economic environment than last October, and repeat visits were down significantly. Bounce rates increased to levels not seen for a year as many shoppers lacked intent.

Euclid says its metrics illustrate a cautious outlook for industry revenues, and estimates sales growth in the following retail verticals of:

• 5.7 percent decline year-over-year in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other retail sales;
• 0.9 percent growth year-over-year in clothing and apparel sales; and
• 2.7 percent decline year-over-year in general merchandise sales.

Other findings in the report:

• Shopper traffic increased 3 percent compared to the same month last year, but this was predominantly driven by easy comparisons to the government shutdown period in 2013.
• Storefront conversion was up 2 percent year-over-year, benefitting from very robust Halloween shopping toward the end of the month.
• Bounce rate increased 1 percent from last year. October saw the worst bounce rate since November 2013, a negative sign for sales during the month.
• Repeat visits declined sharply after a rebound in September as many shoppers are waiting until the holiday season is in full swing to make return trips to the store.

The best shopping day of October was Sunday the 19th. Outperformance was experienced across traffic, storefront conversion and visit duration. This day had the highest absolute duration for the month at 25.9 minutes. On the other hand, Friday the 24th was the worst shopping day of the month. Low duration coupled with abnormally high bounce rates marked this day and likely led to sales underperformance. Generally, the middle of the month saw the best shopping days, while the end of the month saw a drop off in activity.