ShopperTrak RCT Corporation's National Retail Sales Estimate reported that retail sales for the week ending December 15 decreased a slight 0.4 percent as compared to the same period in 2006, while ShopperTrak's Retail Traffic Index (SRTI) reported total U.S. traffic for the same period fell 8.9 percent, as inclement weather continues to influence year-over-year consumer behavior.
On a week-over-week comparison, retailers continued to experience a healthy shopping build as the Christmas holiday approaches, with sales and traffic for the week ending December 15 as compared to the previous week ending December 8 posting increases of 15.2 and 14.1 percent respectively.
This strong performance marks the second straight week of robust week-over-week sales (sales and traffic increased 14.3 and 10.7 percent for the week ending December 8 as compared to the previous week ending December 1) and ShopperTrak expects this trend to continue as retailers prepare for the crucial Super Saturday, or the Saturday immediately preceding Christmas, weekend.
“Winter storms throughout the Midwest and Northeast continued to wreak havoc this holiday season on year-over-year retail performance last week, but the week-over-week build as Christmas approaches is preventing retailers from hitting the panic button heading into the last shopping days of the season,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak.
“We expect procrastinating consumers will make the upcoming Super Saturday weekend a significant event for retailers, putting us right on pace to hit our preseason holiday prediction of a 3.6 percent retail sales increase over last year.”
ShopperTrak's SRTI is generated from a carefully drawn sample of more than 50,000 retail and enclosed mall locations throughout the United States.
marketing@alchempro.com
