Winter Weather Wreaks Havoc on Retail Stores
Sales Fell 10.4% in February at Brick-and-Mortar Stores as Temperatures Plummeted and Snowfall Soared
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- RetailNext Inc., the worldwide leader and expert in applied retail analytics for physical stores, today released its monthly Retail Performance Pulse, showing a 10.4 percent year-over-year decrease in sales on a 12.5 percent decline in traffic at brick-and-mortar stores for the retail month of February (February 1 through February 28 on the retail 4-5-4 calendar).
"Winter weather was one of the big, recurring news stories in February, and it certainly made its impact felt at brick-and-mortar stores," said Shelley E. Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at RetailNext. "While store traffic declines were more severe in the Northeast and South regions as a result of the inclement weather, it was in those two regions, however, where Sales per Shopper (SpS) was the highest, boasting increases of over five percent year-over-year."
"Shoppers may well have been held captive by the weather for a time, but when they were able to get to the stores, they had a mindset to purchase," added Kohan. "Customers had the time and the technology to easily research products and pricing online. Shoppers' behaviors, and the corresponding store results, highlight the importance for retailers to allow and empower the convergence of digital and physical channels."
Valentine's Day, February 14, showed the highest sales, traffic and number of transactions of the month. Conversion and sales per shopper were highest the day before Valentine's Day, which is typical from a historical perspective. The lowest sales, traffic, and number of transactions occurred during the first week of the month when Super Bowl Sunday turned into Super Storm Monday and winter weather impacted the Northeast region in particular.
The complete Retail Performance Pulse can be downloaded at http://home.retailnext.net/Performance-Pulse.html.
About RetailNext
The first technology platform to bring e-commerce style shopper analytics to brick-and-mortar stores and malls, RetailNext enables retailers to collect and correlate data from the broadest available set of data sources. More than 160 retailers and brands worldwide have adopted RetailNext solutions to glean the insights necessary to improve customer experience, increase same-store sales, reduce theft and eliminate unnecessary costs.
RetailNext measures the behavior of more than one billion shoppers per year by collecting data from tens of thousands of sensors in retail stores and analyzing trillions of data points annually. Headquartered in San Jose, CA, RetailNext is a growing global brand operating in 40 countries. For more information, please visit www.retailnext.net.
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RetailNext Inc. and RetailNext are trademarks of RetailNext Inc. in the United States.
SOURCE RetailNext
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