The Advance Monthly and Monthly Retail Trade Surveys (MARTS and MRTS), the Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS), and the Quarterly E-Commerce Report work together to produce the most comprehensive data available on retail economic activity in the United States. More detailed descriptions of these programs can be found by choosing one of the links to the left or by visiting the ARTS page.

Regular quality control and verification takes place between MARTS, MRTS, and ARTS annually and between these programs and the Economic Census of Retail Trade every five years. Each year when annual data become available, we compare and resolve differences between the data collected on the monthly and annual surveys. We refer to this process as the monthly-to-annual reconciliation. At the same time, we benchmark the monthly estimate using results of the annual survey. ARTS estimates are then benchmarked to data maintained by the Economic Census of Retail Trade. This process of benchmarking retail data over all four programs ensures consistency in our estimates.