Annual Retail Trade Survey

The Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS) provides detailed industry measures of retail company activities. The ARTS covers retail companies with one or more establishments that sell merchandise and associated services to final customers. The first ARTS collection was in 1999. Companies provide data on dollar value of retail sales, sales taxes collected, inventories, method-of-inventory valuation, cost of purchases, and account receivables balances. The Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS) produces national estimates of total annual sales, e-commerce sales, sales taxes, end-of-year inventories, purchases, total operating expenses, gross margins, and end-of-year accounts receivable for retail businesses located in the United States.