Fiserv Small Business Index™ for March 2024: Seasonal Factors Impact Small Business Sales as Spring Arrives
04 April 2024 - 11:30PM
Business Wire
Fiserv Small Business Index reflects one point
decline from February 2024
Small business sales grew +2.0% year-over-year,
while declining -0.8% month-over-month
Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE: FI), a leading global provider of payments
and financial services technology, has published the Fiserv Small
Business Index™ for March 2024. The Fiserv Small Business Index is
an indicator of the performance of small businesses in the United
States at national, state, and industry levels.
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March 2024 Fiserv Small Business Index
Values (Graphic: Business Wire)
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted Fiserv Small Business Index
decreased one point to 141. Small business sales grew +2.0%
year-over-year, while declining -0.8% month-over-month.
“Consumer spending fluctuated throughout March, with Spring
Break travel boosting sales and the Easter holiday contributing to
a slow finish as many small businesses closed on the month’s final
day,” said Prasanna Dhore, Chief Data Officer at Fiserv.
“Restaurants were a particularly bright spot in March, with small
businesses in this subsector seeing a +4.0% increase in spending
over February and a +5.8% increase over March 2023. As in the past
few months, consumers again devoted the biggest share of their
spending at small businesses to dining out.”
Retail Spotlight
Nationally, sales at retail small businesses were soft compared
to February (-1.6%) but trended well ahead of March 2023 (+5.1%).
Some of the month-over-month slowdown can be attributed to the fact
that many small businesses opted to close in observance of the
Easter holiday on March 31. While most subsectors within the Retail
sector experienced a month-to-month deceleration in sales, every
subsector was ahead of its 2023 results. The strongest performer
among the Retail subsectors was Clothing, Accessories, Shoes, and
Jewelry, which delivered growth of +0.4% over February.
Additional Small Business Insights
Spring Break travel and celebrations also contributed to
sizeable sales increases in the Accommodation subsector
encompassing hotels and short-term vacation rentals, which grew
+3.5% month-over-month and the Amusement, Gambling, and
Recreational Industries subsector, which grew +4.1%
month-over-month and +10.5% year-over-year.
Food Manufacturing was the most active small business subsector
in March, with its index increasing 9 points to 175. Sales for
small businesses in this subsector grew +5.2% from February 2024,
and +14.0% over 2023.
Other growing subsectors in March included: Web Search Portals,
Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (+5.6%
month-over-month, +16.1% year-over-year), Personal and Laundry
Services (+3.1% month-over-month, +3.2% year-over-year), and
Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries (+2.3%
month-over-month, +1.8% year-over-year).
About the Fiserv Small Business Index™
The Fiserv Small Business Index is published during the first
week of every month and differentiated by its direct aggregation of
consumer spending activity within the U.S. small business
ecosystem. Rather than relying on survey or sentiment data, the
Fiserv Small Business Index is derived from point-of-sale
transaction data, including card, cash, and check transactions
in-store and online, across approximately 2 million U.S. small
businesses.
Benchmarked to 2019, the Fiserv Small Business Index provides a
numeric value measuring consumer spending, with an accompanying
transaction index measuring customer traffic. Through a simple
interface, users can access data by region, state, and/or across
business types categorized by the North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS). Computing a monthly index for 16
sectors and 34 sub-sectors, the Fiserv Small Business Index
provides a timely, reliable and consistent measure of small
business performance even in industries where large businesses
dominate.
To access the full Fiserv Small Business Index visit fiserv.com
and click on “Fiserv Small Business Index” or visit
fiserv.com/FiservSmallBusinessIndex.
About Fiserv
Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE: FI), a Fortune 500 company, aspires to move
money and information in a way that moves the world. As a global
leader in payments and financial technology, the company helps
clients achieve best-in-class results through a commitment to
innovation and excellence in areas including account processing and
digital banking solutions; card issuer processing and network
services; payments; e-commerce; merchant acquiring and processing;
and the Clover® cloud-based point-of-sale and business management
platform. Fiserv is a member of the S&P 500® Index and has been
recognized as one of Fortune® World’s Most Admired Companies™ for 9
of the last 10 years. Visit fiserv.com and follow on social media
for more information and the latest company news.
FISV-G
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240404737908/en/
Media Relations: Chase Wallace Director, Communications
Fiserv, Inc. +1 470-481-2555 chase.wallace@fiserv.com
Additional Contact: Ann S. Cave Vice President, External
Communications Fiserv, Inc. +1 678-325-9435 ann.cave@fiserv.com
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