Same-store sales growth
Also written SSSG
Growth in sales at stores that were open for a full year in both periods being compared, stripping out the effect of newly opened stores — the key like-for-like growth metric for retailers.
In plain language
A retailer can grow revenue simply by opening more stores, even if each individual shop is doing no better than before. That growth tells an analyst nothing about whether the existing business is actually improving.
Same-store sales growth answers the sharper question: are the stores that were already open doing more business than they were a year ago?
How it works
The workbook names this directly as a retail-sector metric to track, in Chapter 6.7: "No. of stores and Same stores' sales growth." It sits alongside the workbook's wider point that the metric an analyst should track varies by industry — for retail, it is store count and same-store growth, rather than a measure like ARPU that fits telecom instead.
The standard construction compares sales only from stores that were open for the full 12 months in both years being compared, excluding any store opened or closed during that time.
A worked example
Illustrative. A retail chain had 200 stores last year, generating Rs 1,000 crore. This year it has 230 stores (30 newly opened) and total revenue of Rs 1,260 crore — a 26% headline increase.
But the 200 stores open in both years generated only Rs 1,120 crore this year, against Rs 1,000 crore last year:
Same-store sales growth = (1,120 − 1,000) ÷ 1,000 = 12%
Most of the 26% headline growth came from opening new stores, not from the existing business getting stronger — same-store sales growth of 12% is the more honest measure of how the underlying retail operation actually performed.
Why NISM asks about it
Chapter 6.7 (Key Industry Drivers and Industry KPIs) names same-store sales growth as a retail-sector metric. Expect a question distinguishing total revenue growth from same-store growth, or a computation isolating the like-for-like figure.
Common exam traps
- Strong total revenue growth can hide a weak existing business if it is driven mainly by new store openings — same-store sales growth is what isolates the health of the stores already running.
Check yourself
1.A retailer's total revenue grew 26% during a year in which it opened 40 new stores, taking its network to 210. Why does the workbook pair "number of stores" with "same-store sales growth" as retail KPIs?
- a)Because same-store sales growth is a regulatory disclosure requirement for retailers
- b)Because number of stores measures expansion while same-store sales growth strips out new stores and shows whether existing stores are actually selling more
- c)Because same-store sales growth is the only metric that can be compared across industries
- d)Because retail has a clearly defined unit of pricing that both metrics measure
Show the answer
Answer: (b) Because number of stores measures expansion while same-store sales growth strips out new stores and shows whether existing stores are actually selling more
The workbook says retail growth heavily depends on expanding the store network into localities that can generate healthy sales — so number of stores tracks that expansion. But total revenue growth flatters any retailer that has just added 40 stores, and says nothing about the health of the business. Same-store sales growth looks only at stores open in both periods, so it isolates underlying performance.
Option D gets the reasoning backwards. The workbook explicitly says that in retail the unit of pricing is far less relevant, because the business is "trading" in nature — each product has a different pricing unit and the retailer can switch products quickly. That is precisely why analysts fall back on the constraint (store network) instead.
Options A and C are inventions — the workbook makes no disclosure claim, and a cross-industry comparison is exactly what these sector-specific KPIs are not for.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series XVRelated terms
- Attractive industryAn industry structure, under Porter's Five Forces, with low competition, high entry barriers and weak buyer or supplier power — letting its companies earn strong, durable margins.
- Business modelHow a company actually makes money — what it sells, to whom, and how it delivers and prices it — which the workbook treats as the real basis of competition between companies.
- SCP analysisStructure-Conduct-Performance analysis — studying an industry's competitive structure, the behaviour that structure produces in its firms, and the financial performance that follows.
- Annual Run RateThe yearly equivalent of a start-up's Monthly Run Rate — its predictable revenue restated on an annual basis, used to judge whether revenue is consistent and sustainable.