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Retail
Annual Retail Trade Survey
ANNUAL RETAIL TRADE SURVEY
PURPOSE
To provide detailed industry measures of retail company activities. The United States Code, Title 13, authorizes this survey and provides for mandatory responses.
COVERAGE
Retail companies with one or more establishments that sell merchandise and associated services to final consumers.
CONTENT
Companies provide data on dollar value of retail sales, sales taxes collected, e-commerce sales, end-of-year inventories, method-of-inventory valuation, cost of purchases, operating expenses and account receivables balances.
FREQUENCY
Data collection begins the first week after the close of the year. Reported data are for activity taking place over the prior calendar year. Samples are re-selected every 5 years (most recently in 2006) and updated annually. Survey has been conducted annually since 1951 (except 1954).
METHODS
A mail-out/mail-back survey of a sample of about 22,000 firms.
The first step in the sample selection identified firms selected with certainty. If a firm’s annual sales or end-of-year inventories were greater than the corresponding certainty cutoff, that firm was selected into the ARTS sample with certainty.
All firms not selected with certainty were subjected to sampling on an EIN basis. If a firm had more than one EIN, we treated each of its EINs as a separate sampling unit. To be eligible for the initial sampling, an EIN had to have nonzero payroll in 2003. The EINs were stratified according to their major industry and their estimated sales (on a 2002 basis). Within each noncertainty stratum, a simple random sample of EINs was selected without replacement. The selected noncertainty EINs were divided into two approximately equal groups. One group is canvassed for both the monthly and the annual survey, the other group is canvassed for only the annual survey. The annual sample consists of approximately 3,300 companies and 18,700 EINs.
Annual estimates are derived from data collected in the ARTS. Firms in the ARTS sample are asked to report their data for the year just ending. Two years of data are requested in the year in which a new sample is introduced. Annual totals are computed as the sum of weighted data (reported and imputed) for all selected sampling units that meet the sample canvass and tabulation criteria given above. The weight for a given sampling unit is the reciprocal of its probability of selection into the ARTS sample. The annual estimates are adjusted using results of the 2002 Economic Census. Annual total estimates for broad industry groups (e.g., 2-, 3-, and 4-digit NAICS levels) are computed by summing the census-adjusted annual totals for the appropriate detailed industries comprising the broader industry group. Year-to-year change estimates are computed using the census-adjusted annual totals.
PRODUCTS
Estimates are released in the first quarter of each year. These estimates are benchmarked to the most recent Economic Census of Retail Trade.
USES
These data are widely used throughout government, academic, and business communities. The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses the estimates as an input for estimating Gross Domestic Product. The Bureau of the Census uses the data to benchmark the monthly sales and inventory series. The Federal Reserve Board uses accounts receivable balances for measuring consumer credit.
Retail merchants use data to determine market share. Market research firms use the estimates to analyze market trends and to determine the direction of the economy.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Provides the only current data on gross margin, accounts receivables owed to retail firms.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Annual
Capital Expenditures Survey
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You are here: Economic Programs Overview
Retail
Annual Retail Trade Survey
Last revised: December 15, 2008
