MasterCard Advisors Releases May 2011 SpendingPulse

U.S. Retail Sector Report: Mother’s Day and Graduation Drive Luxury and Jewelry Gains, While Home-Related Sectors Struggle

Following an April Boosted by a Late Easter, Sales Growth Loses Momentum

PURCHASE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MasterCard Advisors:

“We have been seeing a regular decline in gasoline, with barrels pumped declining by 1% to 2%. The higher gas prices, though, do not seem to have had an impact on travel-related categories including Hotel or Restaurant sales or spending in Automotive-related sectors like tires, parts and service.”

SpendingPulse™
Data Source:		A macroeconomic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail and services sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms, such as cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide.

MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, a macroeconomic report tracking national retail and services sales, today provided summary results for performance of specific U.S. retail industries in May 2011. Luxury, high-end Jewelry and e-Commerce enjoyed strong growth, as did the Hotel and Restaurant categories. Apparel also continued to show gains while housing-related sectors such as Furniture, Electronics and Appliances all saw sales decline compared to the same period in 2010.

Michael McNamara, Vice President, Research and Analysis for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, notes, “Because the late Easter holiday boosted April’s year-over-year comparisons in some sectors, the May growth rates can look flattened by comparison, especially in Apparel, Luxury, and Groceries where the growth rates were only about half what they were in April. At the same time, Jewelry had its best year/year rate in 2011, and unlike the mixed results in April, every sub-category of Restaurants showed year-over-year growth in May.”

Mr. McNamara noted that while gasoline prices had declined somewhat since their peak, they were still cause for concern. “We have been seeing a regular decline in gasoline, with barrels pumped declining by 1% to 2%. The higher gas prices, though, do not seem to have had an impact on travel-related categories including Hotel or Restaurant sales or spending in Automotive-related sectors like tires, parts and service.”

Here are details of some specific sectors for May 2011:

With the travel season upon us, and, as noted above, gasoline prices continuing to stymie spending at the pump, it is interesting to note most sub-sectors of Travel have posted gains. Airlinesshowed only a modest 0.8% year-over-year growth rate, far below the 4-5% gains of March and February, while Lodging was up by 5.1% year-over-year. And Automotive stores (excluding dealers) posted sales year-over-year gains of 3.8% over May 2010, with repair sales up 3.8%, parts up 3.9%, and tires up 3.6%.

Though noticeably smaller than April’s gains, Total U.S. Apparel sales in May recorded a 5.9% year-over-year increase, its 18th consecutive monthly gain. While some of this month’s performance can be attributed to the late Easter holiday boosting April sales, all of Apparel’s sub-sectors recorded year-over‐year sales growth in May. Family Apparel posted modest year-over-year gains of 3.6%, its 16^th positive out of the last 17 months. At 8.5%, Footwear weighed in with its 18^th consecutive month of positive year-over-year growth, its May sales dollars being the second highest May dollar value in SpendingPulse history.

Up for the 7^th consecutive month of double-digit year-over-year growth and 22^nd straight month in positive territory, U.S. e-Commerce was up 15.9% year-over-year. Many eCommerce sectors posted impressive growth, with online Apparel sales gaining 19%, higher than the 17.9% growth rate observed in April.

In its 8^th consecutive month of year-over-year gains, the SpendingPulse Luxury Index (excluding Jewelry) was up 4.7%, posting more modest results than in the first quarter of the year. The SpendingPulse Luxury category measures luxury sales at high-end restaurants, food stores, department stores and general apparel categories.

For more on SpendingPulse, please visit:

http://www.mastercardadvisors.com/us/advisors/en/merchant_solutions/ms_spendingpulse.html

About MasterCard Advisors

MasterCard Advisors provides payments consulting, information, analytics, and customized services to financial institutions and their merchant partners worldwide. Addressing complex challenges in strategy, marketing, risk, and operations, MasterCard Advisors helps clients maximize the value of their payments businesses. As the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide, MasterCard Advisors is uniquely qualified to provide clients with insights and solutions that drive tangible impact and financial gain. For more information, go to www.mastercardadvisors.com

About MasterCard Worldwide

As a leading global payments company, MasterCard Worldwide prides itself on being at the heart of commerce, helping to make life easier and more efficient for everyone, everywhere. MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2010, $2.7 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network – the fastest payment processing network in the world – MasterCard processes over 23 billion transactions each year and has the capacity to handle 160 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 130 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability. MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus®; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPass™ and MasterCard inControl®. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, please visit us at www.mastercard.com. Follow us on Twitter: @mastercardnews.

Contacts

Meir Kahtan Public Relations, LLC
Meir Kahtan, +1-212-575-8188
mkahtan@rcn.com
or
MasterCard Worldwide
Naya Larsson, +1-914-249-3916
naya_larsson@mastercard.com

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