Commerce reported that September retail sales at $483.9 billion were up 1.6% over August and 4.4% annually. And total retail sales from July through September rose 3.9% compared to the same period in 2016.

September retail sales data issued by the United States Department of Commerce and the National Retail Federation (NRF) showed annual gains.

Commerce reported that September retail sales at $483.9 billion were up 1.6% over August and 4.4% annually. And total retail sales from July through September rose 3.9% compared to the same period in 2016.

NRF said that September retail sales were 0.5% ahead of August on a seasonally-adjusted basis and up 3.2% annually on an unadjusted basis. The organization also stated that some key retail sectors showed decent gains, including:

• building materials and supplies stores up 2.1% over August seasonally adjusted and up 7.7% unadjusted year-over-year;
• online and other non-store sales were up 0.5% seasonally adjusted from August and up 5.8% unadjusted year-over-year; and
• general merchandise stores were up 0.3% seasonally adjusted over August and up 4.7% unadjusted year-over-year

“Retail appears to have navigated through some rough weather – literally,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said. “Hurricane impacts were very clear, with a strong boost for building materials going a long way to offset downturns elsewhere. Results were mixed among several business lines but the bottom line was a good increase over August and strong growth from a year ago. While the hurricanes played a major role in the data, they did not fundamentally affect the upward path of the economy.”

Read the entire article in Logistics Management here.