Consumer spending growth slows in April, but a few retail areas see bright spots

The pace of overall spending growth in April ticked down to +3.0%, slightly slower than the +3.3% growth recorded in March, according to the latest SpendTrend® from Fiserv report.  This was the fourth straight month of slowed spending and corresponds with similar slowdowns in transaction growth.

SpendTrend provides a comprehensive look at patterns of actual consumer spending each month, aggregating U.S. retail sales data across more than four million merchant locations in all major retail verticals, plus services, travel and lodging, and food.

April 2023 highlights

Restaurant spending growth slowed to +5.1%, marking the fourth straight month of slowed growth. Food and Beverage Stores (-0.9%) also experienced some of the largest downshifts, largely due to declines in average ticket size. 

Retail spending growth in April (-3.7%) picked up from its March pace (-4.1%), driven by seasonal demand in Building Materials (+0.2%), General Merchandise Stores (+1.0%) and Health and Personal Care Stores (+2.8%). Clothing and Accessories (-6.0%), Sporting Goods (-7.8%) and Furniture (-13.3%) led declines in retail spending.

Hotels (+0.1%) and Travel (+13.8%) spending growth was the slowest since both industries rebounded from the pandemic downturn, while Leisure spending growth (+22.3%) remained robust as recreational outlets saw continued demand.

Download the April report to explore spending across nine industry verticals and nine retail subindustries. Key topics:

• Year-over-year spending and transaction growth/decline
• Average ticket size – overall, by sector and by payment type
• Transaction, spending and ticket size growth by payment type – overall and by sector
• Spending growth by region

All data is Fiserv proprietary data and includes only actual card-based forms of payment. SpendTrend^® from Fiserv is a macro-economic indicator that reports aggregated year-over-year same store sales activity for card-based payments. SpendTrend does not represent Fiserv financial performance.

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