Analysis
Small businesses in Fiserv’s U.S. spending sample took in more sales dollars in September, but recorded fewer transactions overall. Retailers were a bright spot: clothing transactions increased and sporting-goods sales rose, while restaurants continued to lose transactions.
A stronger month for retailers
Fiserv, the payments-technology company, released its September 2026 Small Business Index on October 5. Overall sales rose 2.2% from September 2025 and 0.7% from August 2026, the strongest annual increase since June. Transactions fell 2.0% from a year earlier and 0.2% from August. Fiserv said September was the eleventh consecutive month of year-over-year transaction declines. [1]
The overall figures conceal a split between retailers and other businesses. Retail sales increased 3.0% from a year earlier, with transactions up 2.4% and average spending per transaction up 0.5%. Clothing transactions increased 6.1%, even though average spending per purchase fell 4.7%. Sporting-goods retailers recorded a 10.4% sales increase. Fiserv attributed the retail improvement to back-to-school demand. [1]
Food and beverage retailers also gained, with sales up 1.9% and transactions up 1.5% from September 2025. The company linked that rebound to possible school-season restocking; its figures do not establish why any particular household made a purchase. [1]
Restaurants move the other way
Food services and drinking places recorded a 1.0% annual sales decline as transactions fell 3.9%. Average spending per transaction rose 2.8%, but that was not enough to make up for the lower transaction count. Limited-service restaurants had a sharper decline: sales dropped 4.0% and transactions fell 5.6%. Full-service restaurant sales rose 0.8%, while drinking-place sales increased 5.3%. [1]
The contrast extended beyond restaurants. Goods businesses recorded 2.9% annual sales growth and 2.2% more transactions. Services businesses posted 1.9% sales growth despite a 3.5% fall in transactions, supported by a 5.4% rise in average spending per transaction. The result was an uneven month, rather than a broad increase in purchasing activity. [1]
More dollars do not always mean more goods
Across the full sample, average spending per transaction rose 4.2% from a year earlier. That measure can change because of prices, the size of each purchase or the mix of products and businesses. It is not a standalone inflation measure, and a transaction count does not tell us how many individual items were bought. [1]
Gas stations showed the distinction particularly clearly. Their sales rose 21.1% from September 2025, while transactions increased just 0.2% and average spending per transaction climbed 20.9%. Fiserv reported that inflation-adjusted gas-station sales fell 5.0%. The large increase in dollars therefore did not represent a comparable increase in real sales. [1]
The index draws on in-store and online card, cash and check transactions at approximately 2 million U.S. small businesses, including businesses using Fiserv’s Clover platform. It offers a view of activity in that company’s sample, rather than an official retail-sales report or a complete account of U.S. household spending. September’s clearest contrast was within the sample itself: retailers gained transactions, while restaurants and services lost them. [1]
What remains uncertain
All figures are Fiserv’s reported estimates for its small-business sample. Annual comparisons are September 2026 versus September 2025; monthly comparisons are with August 2026. Dollar sales are not inflation-adjusted unless explicitly stated. Fiserv uses transactions as a customer-traffic proxy, including online purchases; these are not counts of unique customers or physical store visits. The release describes a 2019 benchmark but does not set out the full seasonal-adjustment or inflation-adjustment methodology. Back-to-school explanations are the company’s interpretation, not independently established household motives.