Dear Reader,

Welcome to our latest edition of the Win the Week newsletter, covering consumer spending trends for the week ending July 13, 2024. Let's dive into the latest Facteus transaction data, comparing it with previous weeks to identify emerging patterns.

This week's highlights are featured below.

General Retail Spending Trends

General retail spending started to recover from its multi-week declines, with Amazon and Target seeing growth in the weekly spend and the average ticket prices.

Notably, the weekly spend at Target nearly doubled that at Amazon, making the Red Bullseye brand the standout leader among big-name brands last week. Also crucial to point out is the fact that Amazon spending grew a week ahead of July Prime Day in 2024 (and that’s not necessarily the same as Amazon Big Deal days spending, as Facteus data reveals).

Overall, here’s what happened with general retail spending over the past week:

• Weekly spend growth: -0.8%

• Average ticket growth: 0.4%

Fast Fashion Spending

Fast fashion spending declined for another consecutive week, with across-the-board drops in the weekly spend. While SHEIN saw the smallest declines in consumer spending, Zara and Uniqlo had the most dramatic falls, marking a couple of weeks of losses right on the heels of some growth at the end of June.

Overall, in fast fashion:

• Weekly spend growth: -4.8%

• Average ticket growth: 1.7%

TikTok Shop Spending

TikTok Shop spending remained robust over the last week, continuing to grow substantially in terms of week-over-week growth and the average ticket price. Overall, with TikTok Shop spending:

• Weekly spend growth: 13.6%

• Average ticket growth: 3.6%

To dig into the TikTok Shop spending data deeper, check out the top apparel brands on this platform below to see how their sales have trended so far in 2024.

Other Retail Spending

Other retail sectors bounced around over the past week, with some substantial dropoffs in consumer spending at grocery stores, wholesale clubs, and home improvement stores while discount stores were the stand-out sector for growth last week.

• Fast Food & Restaurant spend growth: -0.9%

• Grocery spend growth: -12.7%

• Wholesale Club spend growth: -8.0%

• Discount Store spend growth: 2.8%

• Hardware & Home Supply spend growth: -9.7%

Key Takeaways & Comparisons

Analyzing the latest retail transaction data can start to highlight some fascinating insights and important trends related to consumer spending and shopping across several areas:

1. General Retail: Remains steady at -0.8% spend growth, identical to last week. However, average ticket size has turned positive, suggesting fewer but larger purchases.

2. Fast Fashion: Continued decline with -4.8% growth, worse than last week's -3.0%. This category has been struggling for several weeks now.

3. TikTok Shop: Accelerated growth to 13.6% from last week's 4.7%, marking its fourth consecutive week of positive growth and its strongest performance in the period we've been tracking.

4. Fast Food & Restaurant: Slight improvement to -0.9% from last week's -4.2%, but still in negative territory for the third straight week.

5. Grocery: A sharp decline to -12.7% growth from last week's 8.5% surge, likely a correction after the 4th of July holiday boost.

6. Hardware & Home Supply: Reversed to -9.7% growth from last week's 7.7%, another possible post-holiday correction.

This week's data shows a clear contrast between traditional retail categories and emerging platforms like TikTok Shop. While most categories saw declines or minimal growth, TikTok Shop's strong performance suggests a shift in consumer behavior towards newer, digital-first shopping experiences.

The sharp declines in Grocery and Hardware & Home Supply likely reflect a normalization of spending patterns after the 4th of July holiday. It will be interesting to see if these categories stabilize in the coming weeks.

Fast Fashion's continued struggle and the steady state of General Retail might indicate cautious consumer spending in traditional retail sectors. This could be due to economic factors or a shift towards different shopping channels.

As we move through mid-summer, we'll be watching to see if these trends continue or if we see new shifts in consumer behavior. The continued growth of TikTok Shop is particularly noteworthy and may signal a longer-term change in how consumers discover and purchase products.

Remember, Facteus analyzes over $3.1 trillion in consumer spending from more than 120 million individual consumers, providing comprehensive insights across various industries.

If you have any questions or would like to explore how Facteus' data can support your business decisions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Best regards,

The Facteus Team

Explore Our Win the Week™ Retail Spending Series