May 12, 2011

National Mother’s Day Retail Sales Increase 5.8 Percent Over 2010

CHICAGO, Ill. — Shoppers cautiously returned to stores this weekend, boosting national retail sales and continuing year-over-year increases.

According to ShopperTrak, the world’s premier provider of store traffic-based information and shopper conversion analytics, national retail sales rose 5.8 percent, while foot traffic decreased 1.7 percent compared to the same week in 2010.

ShopperTrak analyzed foot-traffic from more than 40,000 stores in the United States to create its National Retail Sales Estimate™ (NRSE) of general merchandise, apparel and accessories, furniture and other sales.

Rising employment rates and personal incomes, while still sluggish, motivated shoppers return to the cash register during the week preceding Mother’s Day, ShopperTrak executives said. The drop in store traffic, however, suggests that rising fuel costs caused them to make fewer trips. This means consumers increased their planned, intentional purchases during this historically strong shopping week while reducing their total visits to individual stores.

“Retailers are bouncing back, even though consumer spending remains below its pre-recession levels,” said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak Co-Founder and Executive Vice President. “These numbers show, however, that there is pent-up demand. Customers are ready to return to stores — especially if they can consolidate purchases to minimize trips. Retailers should recognize this and work hard to increase shopper conversion once these customers are in the store.”

About ShopperTrak:

A privately held entity, ShopperTrak leverages 20 years of retail expertise to be the industry’s authority for information and analysis of the movement of shoppers in retail environments. ShopperTrak’s cutting-edge retail intelligence solutions enable retail companies to benchmark their traffic and revenues at the national, regional and local levels and to better understand retail trends while determining the impact of store and staff performance on company revenues. With more than 50,000 units installed in the world’s best known retail outlets and malls, the company’s solutions provide a proven means for retailers to gauge labor efficiencies, advertising and marketing efforts, store design and remodeling programs, merchandise changes, associate training programs, and other budget-intensive strategic initiatives. For more information visit http://www.shoppertrak.com.

About the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE):

Developed by ShopperTrak, the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) provides a nationwide benchmark of GAFO retail sales. NRSE is derived from the U.S. Commerce Department’s GAFO (general merchandise, apparel, furniture, sporting goods, electronics, hobby, books and other related store sales) statistic, as well as ShopperTrak’s proprietary industry intelligence on shopper foot traffic and sales.

NRSE provides retailers, investors and policy makers the most accurate and timely information on consumer sales trends available today.

The data contained within this news release is the property of ShopperTrak Corporation and may be reprinted, published or broadcast, provided proper credit is given to the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE), the ShopperTrak Retail Traffic Index and ShopperTrak Corporation as the supplier of the information.

Please contact Gary Dispensa at 312-529-5441 if you have any questions concerning the use of this data.

For more information on ShopperTrak’s Retail Traffic Indices and the National Retail Sales Estimate of GAFO Retail Sales, please visit ShopperTrak’s Website, www.shoppertrak.com.

Media Contacts:

Anahita Wadia Khan / Kelly Van Tuinen

The Reynolds Communications Group

(312) 541-9300 ext 104/107

awadia@reynoldsgroup.com

kvantuinen@reynoldsgroup.com