New research shows that despite Americans grappling with high prices for many goods and other basics, sales increased this year during the holiday shopping season.
Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures all types of payments, including cash and debit cards, reports that holiday sales from early November through Christmas Eve increased 3.8%, surpassing the 3.1% growth for last year. Ten per cent of the expenditure was over the final five days of the season. Because there were five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, retailers were even more pressured to convince customers to buy in advance and large quantities.
As seen by concentrated online spending during the busiest promotional periods, Michelle Meyer, chief economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute, claimed that the holiday shopping season “revealed a consumer willing and able to spend but driven by a search for value.”
Sales growth exceeded Mastercard SpendingPulse’s forecasted 3.2% increase for this fall. The data, made public on Thursday, is not inflation-adjusted and does not include the automobile sector.
Online shopping was the main driver of the 3.6% increase in clothing sales. Restaurant spending increased along with jewellery and electronics sales. In-person spending increased 2.9%, and online sales increased 6.7% over the previous year.
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