Warm weather in April means American shoppers are spending less time shopping and more time outside, causing a slight dip in retail foot traffic over the course of the month. Compared with March, in-store shopping declined 7.6 percent and was down 2.7 percent year-over-year, according to new data released last week by ShopperTrak.

This makes April the first time in more than three months that foot traffic has declined in both month-over-month and year-over-year capacities. It's especially noteworthy that not even the Easter holiday could salvage April in terms of in-store visitations.

"Also, because March’s weather was so unseasonably warm, many shoppers took to the streets and bought their spring wears before April arrived," Retailing Today adds. "This meant that although April too experienced above-average temperatures, most consumers had already spent their shopping dollars."

However, industry professionals believe Mother's Day should boost shopping and help retailers mount a full recovery.

Retailers feeling particularly hard hit by the decrease in store traffic may want to consider launching special marketing campaigns for Mother's Day. By promoting discounts and offerings through a wide variety of mediums, retails may be able to lift sales.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 7:44 am .