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.

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 estimates 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.

The Business Expenses Supplement is an addition to the 2007 Annual Retail Trade Survey. Its purpose is to compile statistics on detailed business operating expenses. The United States Code, Title 13, authorizes this program as part of the Economic Census. This coverage was previously part of the predecessor Business Expenses Survey. Detailed expenses are collected every five years.

Retail e-commerce sales are estimated from the same sample used for the Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) to estimate preliminary and final U.S. retail sales. Advance U.S. retail sales are estimated from a subsample of the MRTS sample that is not of adequate size to measure changes in retail e-commerce sales.

A stratified simple random sampling method is used to select approximately 10,000 retail firms whose sales are then weighted and benchmarked to represent the complete universe of retail firms. The MRTS sample is probability based and represents all employer firms engaged in retail activities as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Coverage includes all retailers whether or not they are engaged in e-commerce. Online travel services, financial brokers and dealers, and ticket sales agencies are not classified as retail and are not included in either the total retail or retail e-commerce sales estimates. Nonemployers are represented in the estimates through benchmarking to prior annual survey estimates that include nonemployer sales based on administrative records. E-commerce sales are included in the total monthly sales estimates.

The MRTS sample is updated on an ongoing basis to account for new retail employer businesses (including those selling via the Internet), business deaths, and other changes to the retail business universe. Firms are asked each month to report e-commerce sales separately. For each month of the quarter, data for nonresponding sampling units are imputed from responding sampling units falling within the same kind of business and sales size category. Responding firms account for approximately 72 percent of the e-commerce sales estimate and about 71 percent of the estimate of U.S. retail sales for any quarter.

For each month of the quarter, Horvitz-Thompson estimates are obtained by summing weighted e-commerce sales (either reported or imputed). Benchmarked monthly estimates are computed by multiplying each Horvitz-Thompson estimate by the carry-forward factor calculated during the most recent benchmarking. For more information on the benchmark process, see Guidance for Data Users. Estimates for the quarter are obtained by summing the monthly benchmarked estimates. The estimate for the most recent quarter is a preliminary estimate. Therefore, the estimate is subject to revision. Data users who create their own estimates using data from this report should cite the Census Bureau as the source of the input data only.