Retail Sales Climbed in May

Total sales across retail sectors, excluding automobiles and gasoline, were up 1.35 percent when seasonally adjusted month-over-month, and up 3.03 percent unadjusted year-over-year in May, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, powered by Affinity Solutions and released today by the National Retail Federation. That compared with an increase of 0.26 percent month-over-month and a decrease of 0.6 percent year-over-year, in April.

Unlike survey-based numbers collected by the Census Bureau, the Retail Monitor uses anonymized credit and debit card purchase data compiled by Affinity Solutions that does not need to be revised monthly or annually, said NRF.

“Consumers have clearly retained their ability to spend and are driving solid economic growth,” said NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay in a statement. “Spending is being supported by the job market and real wage gains. Inflation remains stubborn but is almost entirely in services rather than retail goods. May’s year-over-year gains are in line with what we saw earlier this year, and the month-over-month increases are the largest in more than a year. We believe this underscores that April’s moderation was an outlier.”

Total sales were up 2.13 percent year-over-year for the first five months of the year and core sales were up 2.48 percent, according to the report. The month-over-month gains were the highest since April 2023, when total sales were up 1.13 percent and core sales were up 1.27 percent.

Key insights for May are as follows:

• Sales at grocery and beverage stores were up 1.97 percent month-over-month when seasonally adjusted and up 2.53 percent when year-over-year unadjusted.

• Online and other non-store sales were up 2.09 percent month-over-month when seasonally adjusted and up 17.91 percent year-over-year unadjusted.

• General merchandise stores were up 1.31 percent month-over-month when seasonally adjusted and up 4.89 percent year-over-year unadjusted.