Many regular readers of this blog have written to us in complete despair at the apparent demise of the ShopKeep Same Store Sales Index. I’m here to tell you – you don’t have to worry! The index is here to stay and, if anything, it’s just getting more fascinating.

We decided recently to make the Index a quarterly rather than monthly announcement as this gave us greater scope and frankly a greater data set from which to draw some pretty interesting conclusions. So without further ado, I give you the ShopKeep POS Same Store Sales Index Q3 Report, or SKPOSSSSIQ3R for short (we may need to work on the name). If you’d like to read the press release, you can check it out here.

So what’s new with the ShopKeep Same Store Sales Index?

Brick and mortar retailers using the ShopKeep POS iPad point of sale saw their same store sales numbers increase by 20 percent over Q3 2012, with transaction volume up 13.6 percent.

Needless to say, we are really happy to report that the numbers for retailers using iPad Point of Sale are looking really strong. For anyone following our previous SSSI updates we had also previously recorded numbers around the 20% for year on year merchant sales growth. We’re really pleased that this is proving to be a consistent trend. This should give all of our merchants confidence as they move into fall retail sales!

Here are some other Q3 2013 Report Highlights (Note: All the following data indicates average growth in Q3 2013 same store sales over Q3 2012):

● Markets including Portland, OR; Chicago, IL; and Seattle, WA are emerging as rapid
adopters of cloud-based POS, and saw the highest sales growth by city over 2012.

● More established markets including Los Angeles and New York City saw the highest
overall sales by city, but lower growth rates.

● The borough of Brooklyn, a region of early adoption with the highest concentration of iPad
POS systems nationally, saw overall higher total revenues than Manhattan and Los
Angeles.

● Quick service restaurants as a group in Los Angeles grew at around twice the rate of
those in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

● Quick service restaurants saw the highest overall sales by vertical market.

● Food trucks enjoyed the largest revenue increase by vertical, although transaction volume remained flat.

Coffee shops and bakeries enjoyed the largest sales increase by store type. To celebrate the largest growing retailers of Q3, here are some summer insights from coffee shops and bakeries across the country:

● CHARGING IT: For bakeries, transactions made by credit card were over 90 percent higher in dollar value than cash transactions every day except on Friday and Sunday. At coffee shops, transactions made by credit card versus cash were more than 60 percent higher in dollar value every day of the week.

● FRIDAY CAFFEINE FRENZY: The day of the week with the highest volume of transactions for coffee shops nationally is Friday.

● SPLURGING ON SATURDAYS: Coffee shop customers on average spent almost 20 percent more in dollar value on Saturdays compared to Mondays, and bakery customers spent 32 percent more.

● CHEAP MONDAYS: Average store sales were lowest on a Monday for both coffee shops and bakeries. The average dollar amount per transaction on Monday is $5.89 and $9.76 respectively.

Note: Detailed coffee insights are based on a sample size of 775 coffee shops across the U.S. and Canada, which are all ShopKeep POS customers. It is based on sales and transaction data gathered between September 2012 and September 2013. Detailed bakery insights are based on a sample size of 509 bakeries across the U.S. and Canada, which are all ShopKeep POS customers. It is based on sales and transaction data gathered between September 2012 and September 2013.

Paul Nugent

Paul Nugent

Paul Nugent is a small business advocate who uses his background in the startup space, along with his POS system expertise, to allow small business owners to make informed decisions within their specific budgets.