March Retail Sales Grow, Numerator Report Shows

The year’s first quarter ended with most channels of distribution seeing gains in sales, according to Numerator's Retail Sales Report.

According to the report, projected retail sales (excluding motor vehicle & parts and gasoline stations) were $514 billion in March 2023, up 1.2% from the previous month and up 7.6% compared with March 2022 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

On a month-over-month basis, only health and personal care stores saw a decline, down 1.9% from February but up 4.2% year-over-year seasonally adjusted.

Segments seeing the largest year-over-year seasonally adjusted increase in March were food service & drinking places up 13.6%, non-store retailers up 10.3%, and general merchandise stores up 8.8%. The largest month-over-month increases on a seasonally adjusted basis were general merchandise stores up 3.9%; sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores up 3.1%; and miscellaneous store retailers up 2.4%.

The Numerator Retail Sales Report is produced and published by Numerator under the leadership of Numerator Chief Economist, Dr. Leo Feler. The report uses Numerator’s first-party and real-time consumer data, aligned with the methodology the US Census Bureau uses for its Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services report.