Fiserv Small Business Index – May 2025: Small Businesses Show Steady Growth Amid Consumer Caution
Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology, has released its Small Business Index for May 2025, revealing that the seasonally adjusted index remained flat at 151. Despite shifting consumer spending habits amid ongoing economic uncertainty, small businesses continued to demonstrate resilience, posting year-over-year sales growth of 3.3% and a 3.8% rise in total transactions.
“Small businesses continue to show resilience, with May marking another month of year-over-year growth,” said Prasanna Dhore, Chief Data Officer at Fiserv. “The ongoing pivot toward essential spending is now a defining trend—growing at double the rate of discretionary purchases, as consumers make more intentional spending decisions.”
On a month-over-month basis, sales rose slightly by 0.2%, though total transactions declined by 2.7%, signaling a drop in consumer foot traffic. This marks the steepest monthly decline in transactions since February 2023. Meanwhile, the average ticket size increased 2.9%, indicating changes in demand, spending patterns, and potentially higher prices. Over the previous 12 months, average ticket sizes had generally declined by about 0.3% per month.
Services Lead Growth as Consumers Prioritize Essentials
Sales in the Services sector rose 3.9% year-over-year, outpacing Goods, which increased by 1.9%. Month-over-month, Services grew by 0.4%, while Goods declined by 0.3%, reflecting a continued shift in consumer preference toward experiences and essential services.
Transportation and Warehousing led growth on a monthly basis, while Manufacturing and Professional Services showed strong momentum on an annual basis.
Restaurants Maintain Sales Despite Fewer Diners
Small business restaurants saw modest year-over-year sales growth of 1.8%. Sales also grew 0.6% month-over-month, despite a sharp 5.6% drop in foot traffic compared to April, with full-service restaurants seeing the most notable declines in visits.
Retail Shoppers Stay Cautious and Price-Sensitive
Retail sales at small businesses rose 0.9% year-over-year, and transactions grew 2.9%, but the average ticket size fell 2.0%, suggesting consumers are shopping more frequently but spending less per visit—likely driven by promotional deals and inflation-conscious behavior.
Notable sector highlights:
- Food and Beverage Retailers: +3.9% YoY
- Clothing Retailers: +5.2% YoY
- Gasoline Stations: -5.4% YoY (due to lower fuel prices)
- Health and Personal Care Retailers: -1.7% YoY
On a monthly basis, retail sales dropped 1.0%, reflecting more selective consumer purchasing.
Regional and Urban Markets Show Broad-Based Strength
Sales increased in 30 out of 50 states compared to April, pointing to widespread, though uneven, growth. The most significant month-over-month gains were seen in:
- New Mexico: +5.9%
- Maryland: +3.2%
- Rhode Island: +3.1%
Year-over-year, the strongest state-level sales growth came from:
- Washington: +13.3%
- South Carolina: +11.3%
- Maryland: +10.1%
Among large metro areas, San Francisco (+10.0%) and Atlanta (+9.5%) led in annual small business sales growth. Dallas (+2.0%) and Chicago (+1.7%) topped month-over-month growth among urban markets, signaling continued momentum even amid overall consumer restraint.
About the Fiserv Small Business Index®
The Fiserv Small Business Index is published during the first week of every month and differentiated by its direct aggregation of consumer spending activity within the U.S. small business ecosystem. Rather than relying on survey or sentiment data, the Fiserv Small Business Index is derived from point-of-sale transaction data, including card, cash, and check transactions in-store and online across approximately 2 million U.S. small businesses, including hundreds of thousands leveraging the Clover point-of-sale and business management platform.
Benchmarked to 2019, the Fiserv Small Business Index provides a numeric value measuring consumer spending, with an accompanying transaction index measuring customer traffic. Through a simple interface, users can access data by region, state, and/or across business types categorized by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Computing a monthly index for 16 sectors and 34 sub-sectors, the Fiserv Small Business Index provides a timely, reliable and consistent measure of small business performance even in industries where large businesses dominate.
