What Is Same-Store Sales?

By Adam Levy – Updated Jun 10, 2025 at 11:58 PM

Key Points

Same-store sales indicate organic growth from consistent locations, excluding new or closed stores.
A decline in same-store sales suggests limited growth potential despite new store openings.
Strong same-store sales reflect effective management and high operational performance.

Same-store sales is a metric used by retail companies that measures the growth in revenue from store locations that have been in operation for at least one year. Sometimes called comparable-store sales, or "comps" for short, it’s an important metric to gauge organic growth from existing stores versus growth through store expansion. Investors ideally want to see improvements in both.

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An infographic defining same-store sales and explaining the formula used to calculate same-store sales. — Image source: The Motley Fool

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E-commerce

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods online and the related businesses that facilitate it

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The bottom line on same-store sales

Understanding same-store sales and how this metric is impacted by various factors is important when analyzing any retail company. If a retailer is expanding to new locations while same-store sales growth is declining, a prospective investor needs to do some deeper analysis. It may be a short-term blip, or it may be a warning sign to stay away from the investment.

A company producing consistently strong same-store sales growth has much more potential for long-term growth and improved profitability than a store that’s only able to grow by expanding to new locations. Investors will want to find the former and avoid the latter as they research retail stocks.

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About the Author

Adam Levy is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering technology, consumer, and financial stocks and how policy, economic, and consumer trends shape personal finance, Social Security and retirement savings. Before The Motley Fool, Adam was a financial advisor at Edward Jones. He studied finance and electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

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Adam Levy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Target. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.