Small Business Sales Jump Year-Over-Year, But Retreat From May

Small businesses in June felt the impact of consumer reaction to reduced inflation, with their overall sales up 4.4% from June 2024, according to the Fiserv Small Business Index for the month, released early Wednesday.

While the year-over-year rebound was strong, sales from May to June this year retreated 1.4%, the Index notes. Fiserv Inc. says the Small Business Index for June was 148, down two points from May.

Smaller merchants felt the impact of continued economic uncertainty, which prompted many consumers to spend with caution, Prasanna Dhore, Fiserv chief data officer, says in a statement. “Discretionary spending declined again in June, and consumers diverted more dollars to the essentials,” Dhore says.

“Services spending has outpaced consumer spending on goods throughout 2025, a trend driven by consumers reprioritizing spending patterns due to economic pressures felt from persistent inflation and rising prices,” Dhore says in a email to Digital Transactions News. “Additionally, consumers have been consistently shifting spend from discretionary to the essentials, including many non-discretionary services (healthcare, utilities, insurance) which are both naturally higher priced, and have seen their prices rise in recent months.”

One bright spot is that merchants selling services experienced stronger sales year-over-year, up 5.2% from June 2024 compared with goods, up 2.3%. That is an ongoing trend in 2025, Fiserv says. Those in food manufacturing and professional service had exceptional year-over-year growth at 11.7% and 9%, respectively. From May to June, however, both services and goods merchant sales overall decreased, 1.2% and 2%, respectively.

In the hotly competitive restaurant segment, consumer spending increased just 0.4% from June 2024 and dropped 2.6% from May to June this year. Fiserv suggests the month-over-month sales drop was due to a 2.5% dip in foot traffic from May, which was already down 5.6% from April. Average ticket size was down just 0.1% from May.

Retail sales were mixed, with a 1.7% decrease month-over-month, but a 1.7% increase year-over-year. Within this segment, only food and beverage retail had more sales, 0.9%, from May. Year-over-year results, however, were better, with the furniture, electronics, and appliances segment up 4.5%, food and beverage retail up 4.1%, and sporting goods up 3.4%.

Overall, the information sector index rose 6 points to 302, followed by educational services, up 5 points to 150, and finance and insurance up 1 point to 166.

On the other end of the spectrum, the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector index decreased 5 points to 175. Next was health care and social assistance, down 4 points to 149, and wholesale trade, a 4-point drop to 148.

Launched a year ago, the index analyzes transaction data from approximately 2 million U.S. small businesses on the Fiserv and Clover point-of-sale platforms. Clover is owned by Fiserv.