Our US Monthly Retail Traffic and In-Store Metrics Report reviews year-over-year changes in selected store-based metrics, including sales, traffic and conversion rates.

• US store-based traffic continued to fall in August, according to RetailNext. Retail traffic decreased 4.7% year over year in August, worsening from the 3.8% decline in July.
• The conversion rate (sales transactions as a percentage of traffic) advanced 0.7 percentage points in August after declining 0.2 percentage points in July.
• The product return rate decreased 0.1 percentage points in August, slower than the 0.3 percentage point decline in July.

ATV and shopper yield showed year-over-year gains for the seventh consecutive month. ATV continued a 12-month growth streak.

• ATV (sales divided by transactions) grew 1.0% in August, slower than the 4.7% and 3.9% growth reported in June and July, respectively.
• Shopper yield (sales divided by traffic) grew 4.7% year over year in August, accelerating from the 2.4% increase in July.

[caption id="attachment_96839" align="aligncenter" width="700"] ATV = average transaction value, % Return = percentage of goods returned to stores
Source: RetailNext [/caption]   Data for August showed performance varied over the course of the four weeks:

• The last week of August, leading up to the three-day Labor Day weekend, performed the best for sales, conversion rates, transactions and shopper yield.
• August 10 performed the best for traffic, while August 20 reported the lowest performance for traffic.
• Sales, ATV, conversion rates, shopper yield and transaction volumes were lowest on August 7.

The northeast and south reported sales declines while the west and midwest reported increases in sales. All regions posted traffic declines in August. The west registered the largest year-over-year decline in traffic at 6.1%, as it experienced warmer conditions. The midwest experienced the lowest decline in traffic at 2.2%, as it experienced cooler and wetter conditions which were favourable for shoppers as they headed into the back-to-school season. The northeast and south recorded sales declines of 1.9% and 0.1%, respectively. The midwest reported the largest year-over-year in-store sales increase of 1.7%, as it experienced the wettest August in the past 55 plus years.