Summer brought high temperatures and high spirits for retailers.
The NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2022 Data, published in June, kicked off the start of a successful summer when it reported year-over-year inside sales growth of 7.9%.
Chris Rapanick, managing director of research, spoke about the power of CSX and NACS data at the NACS Show in October. Read more about his presentation in the article “
Learning Together.”
The optimism lasted through the season: In July, NACS distributed the Retailer Pulse Survey, a quarterly custom research study with retailer members to identify key priorities and opportunities across the convenience and fuel retailing landscape. Convenience retailers reported higher sales so far in 2023—and that they are optimistic about that trend continuing through the rest of the year.
NACS’ CSX database of industry metrics shows similarly positive numbers. Through the first six months of 2023, in-store sales were up 9.4% compared to the same period in 2022, with inside transactions also up 1.0%. About two in three retailers (65.88%) report that their sales for the first seven months are higher than over the same period last year.
Equally important, retailers are bullish about the convenience channel’s sales for the rest of 2023; fully one-third (33.33%) of all convenience retailers said that convenience stores were the best positioned of six channels for success over the rest of 2023.
