Spring Has Finally Sprung for Retail in March According to Newest U.S. Retail Benchmarks Report from Euclid Analytics

SAN FRANCISCO – April 7, 2015 – Euclid Analytics, the leader in Wi-Fi location analytics, today released its monthly retail benchmarks report to analyze shopper activity and behavior during the month of March. This month’s report measured data from tens of millions of domestic shopping sessions to reveal that shopping activity was relatively flat compared to last year, yet rebounded from a lethargic and wintery February. Traffic declined less than expected year-over-year due to extra holiday shopping in March as a result of an early-April Easter this year. In-store engagement improved significantly year-over-year as consumers desire to spend re-emerged with the sunshine after a subdued winter.

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

0.8% growth year-over-year in general merchandise, apparel, furniture and other (GAFO) retail sales
1.1% decline year-over-year in clothing and apparel sales
2.9% growth year-over-year in general merchandise sales

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

Shopper traffic declined one percent compared to the same month last year due to the secular trends driving shopping activity towards other channels. However, warm weather and an early Easter mitigated the year-over-year decline and generated a nice rebound from February.
Storefront conversion increased slightly year-over-year as more targeted shopping trips were seen from Easter gift shopping.
Duration increased a massive thirty-three percent from last year as the favorable macroeconomic environment finally began translating into increased spending.
Repeat visits decreased two percent year-over-year due to a lack of need to return to the physical location. More March purchases were accomplished in fewer trips.

The best shopping day of March was Tuesday the 10th. The 10th experienced significantly higher storefront conversion than last year and very strong average duration. Shoppers were much more engaged than expected during these middle-of-the-week shopping visits. On the other hand, Thursday, March 5th was the worst shopping day of the month. The 5th experienced lower than expected traffic and abnormally high bounce rates. Despite uncrowded stores, shoppers still did not find the experience they were looking for on this day of the week.

To view the complete findings, download the full report on shopper activity for the month of March here: http://info.euclidanalytics.com/WC15-03USRB_Reg_RLP.html

About Euclid Analytics

Euclid Analytics is the world leader in Wi-Fi location analytics. The company provides answers and insights for the physical world in the same way that web analytics do for e-commerce. By accurately analyzing visitor traffic, behavior and shopping patterns, Euclid helps the world’s leading brands design the perfect customer experience for their brick-and-mortar locations and drive better business results.

Euclid’s network captures billions of measurements per day, analyzing hundreds of millions of potential shopping sessions per year across tens of thousands of locations including retail stores, quick service restaurants, airports and shopping malls. Only anonymous, non-personal data is ever collected and only aggregated trend data is used for analysis. Visit http://euclidanalytics.com for more information.