U.S. September Core Retail Sales Report Released
CNBC/NRF released its September 2026 monthly core retail sales report, focusing on demand for discretionary consumer goods and general retail merchandise.
What are the key facts?
- 1September 2026 monthly retail sales report released on October 8, 2026
- 2Report uses a core retail sales measure
- 3Automobiles, gasoline, and restaurants excluded
- 4Data more closely reflects demand for discretionary consumer goods and general retail merchandise
What happened?
The CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor page shows that the September 2026 monthly retail sales report was released on October 8, 2026. The report uses a core retail sales measure that excludes automobiles, gasoline, and restaurants, making its results more reflective of demand for discretionary consumer goods and general retail merchandise. For cross-border ecommerce sellers targeting the U.S. market, this type of retail demand data can be used to monitor consumer resilience ahead of the fourth-quarter peak season and support inventory, advertising budget, and category resource planning. Sellers reliant on categories such as discretionary consumer goods, nonessential home goods, electronic accessories, apparel, beauty, and gifts can analyze the report alongside their conversion rates, average order values, and advertising costs before deciding whether to increase inventory, rather than making stocking decisions based solely on overall retail growth.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
The report uses a core retail sales measure that excludes automobiles, gasoline, and restaurants, making it more suitable for assessing demand for discretionary consumer goods and general retail merchandise in the U.S. before the fourth-quarter peak season. Do not decide on inventory increases based only on overall retail growth; assess inventory, budget, and category resource allocation using your store’s conversion rate, average order value, and advertising costs.
What should sellers do now?
- 1For U.S. home goods, electronic accessories, apparel, beauty, and gift categories, create an inventory planning list based on core retail demand, record conversion rate, average order value, and advertising cost for each item, and complete a replenishment decision sheet for priority listings.Procurement List
- 2For U.S. discretionary consumer goods listings, enter average order value, advertising costs, and current costs into a profit calculator, separately estimate the profit results of increasing inventory before the peak season versus maintaining current levels, and produce a calculation sheet for priority SKUs.Profit calculator
- 3For U.S. nonessential home goods, electronic accessories, apparel, beauty, and gift categories, use an AI employee to organize market demand and competitor performance signals, verify them item by item against store conversion rate, average order value, and advertising costs, and create a category resource adjustment list.My AI Agents