Introduction

In this week’s report, we look at the change in sales at the small businesses in our sample over the week of April 5 - April 11, 2021.

Key takeaways

• Sales at the small businesses in our sample were up 7.2% last week
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• Overall transaction counts were up 3.7% week-over-week
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• Card-present transactions were up 6.6% last week

About the report

The CardFlight Small Business Report analyzes sales performance and emerging trends among small businesses in the United States.

The report has been featured in and/or cited by The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Digital Transactions, PaymentsJournal, PaymentsSource, and others.

Sign up below to receive future report notifications right in your inbox. Learn more about the report and our methodology.

Last week's small business metrics

First, we examine change in week-over-week small business performance by analyzing change in overall sales, number of transactions per business, and more.

Week-over-week change in sales

This metric compares change in sales at US small businesses from the pre-COVID baseline week of March 2–8, 2020 over the preceding eight weeks.

Transaction counts

The transaction count metric represents the total number of transactions processed by the small businesses in our sample.

Change in active small businesses

This metric measures all businesses who processed at least one transaction in the preceding week.

This metric shows the average number of transactions made at all of the active merchants in our sample.

Card-present payments vs. card-not-present

The payments industry has two broad categories for transactions based on where they occur.

• Card-present payments are those that are initiated in-person (face-to-face). This includes all instances in which a credit or debit card is physically swiped, inserted, or tapped at a merchant location.
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• Card-not-present payments are those made over the phone or online. This category of payments also includes invoices and those merchants who save cards of their frequent customers on file.

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Changing behavior as seen through touch-free ways to pay

The three ways US consumers typically use credit and debit cards for in-person transactions are:

• Dipping an EMV chip card
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• Tapping a contactless card or smart phone
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• Swiping via magnetic stripe
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We continue to see that overall growth in sales made via contactless payment methods are outpacing those made via EMV chip. Transactions made via contactless payment methods are now 195% higher than their pre-COVID baseline levels.

Sales by business category

In this section of the CardFlight Small Business Report, we take a closer look at small business performance by business category.

• Food and Drink establishments: Includes bars and restaurants
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• Services: General contractors, healthcare providers, providers of professional services, and others
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• Retail: Businesses like sporting goods stores, specialty retail, home furnishings, and automotive

Food and Drink businesses

The two charts below show change in sales and transaction counts at US small businesses in the Food and Drink category from the pre-COVID baseline week of March 2–8, 2020 over the preceding eight weeks.

Retail businesses

The two charts below show change in sales and transaction counts at US small businesses in the Retail category from the pre-COVID baseline week of March 2–8, 2020 over the preceding eight weeks.

Services businesses

The two charts below show change in sales and transaction counts at US small businesses in the Services category from the pre-COVID baseline week of March 2–8, 2020 over the preceding eight weeks.

Month-over-month changes

Next, we take a look at the month-over-month changes to sales, transaction counts, and number of active merchants at US small businesses. This analysis is based on "whole month" comparisons, using March 2020 as the baseline month.

Monthly change in sales

Sales at the small businesses in our sample ended the month of February 0.9% above January.

Monthly change in transaction counts

Transaction counts ended the month of February 1.4% below January.

Monthly change in active merchants

The number of active small businesses in our sample ended the month of February 2.2% above January.

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About the report

The CardFlight Small Business Report is intended to provide insights into ongoing sales performance, trends, predictions, and unique analysis of US small businesses.

The report has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Bloomberg TV, Business Insider, Digital Transactions, PaymentsJournal, PaymentsSource, and others.

Methodology

The report is based on analysis of a representative sample of more than two million transactions processed by more than 70,000 small businesses who use SwipeSimple software (the signature product of CardFlight) to accept credit and debit card payments.

To create this report, we analyzed a representative sample of millions of transactions processed by:

• in all 50 states 
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• using CardFlight’s SwipeSimple software to accept credit and debit card payments

The SwipeSimple small business owner 

The typical SwipeSimple merchant has one to ten employees and less than five locations or mobile service points. The average active merchant represented in this data set processes approximately $130,000 in credit/debit card payments annually. The merchants are a mix of professional and personal service providers, specialty retail establishments, and food and drink purveyors.