The opinion of retailers on their recent activity and business prospects is tracked by monitoring sales volumes and related variables such as stocks, order intentions, changes in workforce and price trends.
Entrepreneurs also provide an opinion on their cash flow, the payment deadlines and the easiness to predict the future development of the business situation.
Mostly, the questions are qualitative, with three choices. The results are balances of opinion calculated as the difference between the percentage of << up (+)>> and the percentage of << down (-)>>.

The survey covers the retail trade and automobile trading and repairs, excluding :
- local food and specialised retailers,
- retail sales of flowers and pets,
- retail trade in used goods,
- out-of-store retail trade (except for the mail-order sector which is included in the scope of the survey).

More precisely, the survey covers the sectors defined in the following French activity nomenclature NAF Rev. 2 codes: division 45, 47.1 (except 47.11A, 47.11B, 47.11C), 47.3, 47.4, 47.5, 47.6, 47.7 (except 47.76Z), 47.91A, 47.91B.

The composite business climate indicator describes the common component of the selected balances of opinion on general business outlook, ordering intentions, recent sales, past and expected workforce, expected selling prices, stocks.

The unit surveyed is the enterprise (legal unit or profiled enterprise).

Some data have been available since 1964.