Coresight Research’s US 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 November, according to RetailNext. Retail traffic slid 6.1% year over year in November, versus October’s 5.5% decline. Black Friday accounted for the largest portion of November traffic—but retail traffic was still 4.2% lower than last year.
• The conversion rate (sales transactions as a percentage of traffic) advanced 1.2 percentage points in November, with 1.8-percentage-point growth on the Black Friday weekend, both growing more quickly than the 0.6-percentage-point increase in October.
• Transaction volume slipped 1.3% in November, slowing from October’s 2.0% decline, but transaction volume did increase some 5.5% on the Black Friday weekend.
• The product return rate declined 0.1 percentage points in November, but grew 0.4 percentage points on the Black Friday weekend, compared to flat in October.

Shopper yield (sales divided by traffic) continued a 10-month growth streak, while ATV (sales divided by transactions) declined for the third consecutive month.

• ATV declined 0.5% in November, slightly faster than the 0.3% decline in October. On the Black Friday weekend, ATV contracted 5.0%.
• Shopper yield grew 5.4% year over year in both November and the Black Friday weekend, accelerating from 3.2% growth in October.

[caption id="attachment_101285" align="aligncenter" width="700"] ATV = average transaction value, % return = percentage of goods returned to stores
Source: RetailNext [/caption]   Data for November shows performance varied over the course of the four weeks:

• The first week performed the best for traffic, while the second week performed the best for sales and ATV.
• The third and fourth weeks saw the largest traffic declines, but the highest increase in conversion rates.
• Black Friday (November 29) performed the best for sales, traffic and transactions, while November 22 performed best for conversion rate.
• Sales, traffic, ATV and transactions were lowest on November 21. CVR and shopper yield were lowest on Thanksgiving Day, November 28.

The midwest, south and west reported sales declines while the northeast reported increases in sales. All regions posted traffic declines in November. The midwest registered the largest year-over-year declines in sales and traffic at 3.7% and 7.2%, respectively, as the region witnessed the heaviest snowfall since 1996. With warmer and drier conditions, the northeast posted a sales increase of 1.0% and experienced the lowest decline in traffic at 4.8%.