Fiserv Small Business Index for March 2024: Seasonal Factors Impact Small Business Sales as Spring Arrives

Fiserv Small Business Index for March 2024 has been published, the Fiserv Small Business Index is an indicator of the performance of small businesses in the United States at national, state, and industry levels.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted Fiserv Small Business Index decreased one point to 141. Small business sales grew +2.0% year-over-year, while declining -0.8% month-over-month.

“Consumer spending fluctuated throughout March, with Spring Break travel boosting sales and the Easter holiday contributing to a slow finish as many small businesses closed on the month’s final day,” said Prasanna Dhore, Chief Data Officer at Fiserv. “Restaurants were a particularly bright spot in March, with small businesses in this subsector seeing a +4.0% increase in spending over February and a +5.8% increase over March 2023. As in the past few months, consumers again devoted the biggest share of their spending at small businesses to dining out.”

Retail Spotlight

Nationally, sales at retail small businesses were soft compared to February (-1.6%) but trended well ahead of March 2023 (+5.1%). Some of the month-over-month slowdown can be attributed to the fact that many small businesses opted to close in observance of the Easter holiday on March 31. While most subsectors within the Retail sector experienced a month-to-month deceleration in sales, every subsector was ahead of its 2023 results. The strongest performer among the Retail subsectors was Clothing, Accessories, Shoes, and Jewelry, which delivered growth of +0.4% over February.

Additional Small Business Insights

Spring Break travel and celebrations also contributed to sizeable sales increases in the Accommodation subsector encompassing hotels and short-term vacation rentals, which grew +3.5% month-over-month and the Amusement, Gambling, and Recreational Industries subsector, which grew +4.1% month-over-month and +10.5% year-over-year.

Food Manufacturing was the most active small business subsector in March, with its index increasing 9 points to 175. Sales for small businesses in this subsector grew +5.2% from February 2024, and +14.0% over 2023.

Other growing subsectors in March included: Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (+5.6% month-over-month, +16.1% year-over-year), Personal and Laundry Services (+3.1% month-over-month, +3.2% year-over-year), and Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries (+2.3% month-over-month, +1.8% year-over-year).

About the Fiserv Small Business Index™

The Fiserv Small Business Index is published during the first week of every month and differentiated by its direct aggregation of consumer spending activity within the U.S. small business ecosystem. Rather than relying on survey or sentiment data, 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.

Benchmarked to 2019, the Fiserv Small Business Index provides a numeric value measuring consumer spending, with an accompanying transaction index measuring customer traffic. Through a simple interface, users can access data by region, state, and/or across business types categorized by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Computing a monthly index for 16 sectors and 34 sub-sectors, the Fiserv Small Business Index provides a timely, reliable and consistent measure of small business performance even in industries where large businesses dominate.

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