ANNUAL RETAIL TRADE SURVEY

To produce national estimates of total annual sales, e-commerce sales, end-of-year inventories, inventory-to-sales ratios, purchases, total operating expenses, inventories held outside the United States, gross margins, and end-of-year accounts receivable for retail businesses and annual sales, total operating expenses, and e-commerce sales for accommodation and food service firms located in the United States.

COVERAGE

The ARTS sample covers employer businesses classified in retail trade sector and accommodation & food services sector located in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. ARTS exclude data for businesses located in the U.S. territories. Firms without paid employees, or nonemployers, are included in the estimates through imputation or administrative data provided by other federal agencies.

CONTENT

ARTS provides national estimates of total annual sales, e-commerce sales, end-of-year inventories, inventory-to-sales ratios, purchases, total operating expenses, inventories held outside the United States, gross margins, and end-of-year accounts receivable for retail businesses and annual sales, total operating expenses, and e-commerce sales for accommodation and food service firms located in the United States.

PRODUCTS

Estimates are summarized by industry classification based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Estimates are released approximately 15 months after the reference year. This timing is necessary since the ARTS is used as input to the benchmarking of the Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) each spring. The results of that benchmarking are published in the Annual Revision for Monthly Retail and Food Services Sales. Additionally, estimates from the ARTS are used by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) as input to their annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) revision that is published each July.