A macro-economic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail and service sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms, such as cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide.

MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, a macro-economic report tracking national retail and service sales, provided summary results for performance of specific U.S. retail industries in February, 2010. Most retail sectors showed year-over-year growth, following a largely positive January. While severe snowstorms hurt apparel sales in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and North Central regions, easy year-over-year comparisons helped produce positive results in other sectors. Michael McNamara, Vice President, Research and Analysis for SpendingPulse, observes that pricing continues to remain strong. “Retailers seem not to have needed extreme discounting to drive traffic to their stores,” he said. “This may have been due to a much tighter inventory situation than what we saw last year.”

Particularly strong results were posted in eCommerce, with 16.7% year-over-year growth. McNamara noted that while the channel may have benefited from the severe weather, it was the seventh straight month of double-digit growth. “This sales channel continues to outperform traditional brick-and-mortar stores as consumers shift more of their purchasing online.” According to the SpendingPulse Price Index, which tracks average ticket size and can be impacted by discounting or change in product mix, the average price of an online transaction dropped 3.7% compared to last year. McNamara explained that this was due to consumers’ increasing willingness to make even small purchases online.

Continuing on a positive note, Luxury ex-jewelry sales were up 15.2% over February of 2009, following a gain in December of 5.5% and again in January of 8.1%.

Consumer Electronics, following an increase of 0.4% in January, was also again up by 5.8% year-over-year in February, the sixth consecutive monthly increase.

After January’s increase of 0.6%, U.S. Apparel sales fell 1.8% in February 2010 on a year-over-year basis as severe winter weather depressed sales in many areas of the country. McNamara noted that while the decline was driven by Women’s Apparel, which was down 1.6% against last year, both Men’s Apparel and Footwear were up 5.7% and 2.2% respectively, over February 2009.