May 2015 showed a drop in retail sales by 7.6% versus May 2014. Driving the sales decline was a 9.8% decrease in store traffic and an 8.3% decrease in number of transactions.

Some metrics did show year-over-year improvement. Average transaction value rose 0.8% and sales per shopper increased 2.5%.

The highest day of selling in May was May 9, the Saturday before Mother’s Day. This day is consistently highest in sales, traffic and transaction figures. The lowest traffic and sales were at the end of the month, after the Memorial Day weekend, which was earlier on the calendar this year.

Source: Chain Store Age