Year over year, restaurants saw growth in both total sales (+8.1%) and foot traffic (+8.7%); however, average ticket sizes continued to decline (-1.3%) compared to 2023, accoring to Fiserv Small Business Index for November 2024.
Food Services and Drinking Places, which includes restaurants, indexed at 131 in November, a 4-point increase compared to October. On a monthly basis, both restaurant sales (+3.1%) and transactions (+1.9%) also rose, marking a second consecutive month of strong growth.
Published monthly, 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 (restaurants, retailers and services), including hundreds of thousands leveraging the Clover point-of-sale and business management platform.
“Holiday sales are critical for small businesses, with restaurants and retailers in particular benefitting from consumers getting out and patronizing local establishments during the final months of the year,” said Prasanna Dhore, Chief Data Officer at Fiserv. “Notably in November, food sales accelerated across both restaurant and grocery while Retail maintained the positive momentum from October, a significant increase when compared to 2023.”
Grocery Sales on the Rise
Nationally, the Fiserv Small Business Index for Retail was 150, holding steady compared to October. Year-over-year sales (+5.6%) and transactions (+9.5%) grew and average ticket sizes (-3.8%) continued to decline. Year over year, the fastest-growing retail categories were Grocery (+11.1), General Merchandise (+11.0%), Clothing, Shoes and Jewelry Retailers (+7.3%), and Furniture, Electronics, and Appliances (+6.8%).
On a monthly basis, sales (-0.1%) and transactions (+0.3%) were generally flat with no change in index value compared to October; a positive sign given the significant month-over-month growth retail saw the month prior. The strongest month-over-month gains were seen in Grocery (+2.4%), Furniture, Electronics and Appliances (+2.2%), and General Merchandise (+0.6%).
Services
Service-based small business sales grew compared to 2023 (+5.1%) but declined compared to October of 2024 (-1.8%) as consumers shifted more dollars to restaurants and retailers.
On a yearly basis, the fastest growing service categories were Information Services (+15.0%), Food Manufacturing (+14.8%) and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (+11.1%), and Truck Transportation (+7.9%). On a monthly basis, Food Manufacturing (3.6%) and Transportation Equipment Manufacturing (+1.9%) were the only service-based categories to grow sales compared to October.
Regional Trends
- Nearly all 50 U.S. states saw small business sales growth year over year. Nebraska (+13.1%), Florida (+11.5%), Alaska (+11.4%), South Carolina (+8.7%) and North Carolina (+8.0%) showed the most growth compared to 2023.
- Washington (+3.8%), Florida (+3.7%), Alaska (+1.8%) and Nevada (+0.3%) were the strongest performing states for small business sales growth month over month.
- Miami (+11.4%) and Atlanta (+7.5%) were the strongest-performing large cities for small business sales growth year over year.
