U.S. retail sales rose 7.6 percent between November 1 and December 24 as deep discounts lured supply-hungry consumers, a Mastercard report showed on Monday.
The rise is higher than Mastercard’s 7.1 percent growth forecast in September, when it thought consumers looking for early deals would delay purchases until October.
However, this year’s holiday retail sales growth is slower than last year’s 8.5 percent rise, as decades of inflation, rising interest rates and the threat of a recession have kept consumers cautious.
Retailers like Amazon and Walmart offered big discounts during the holiday season to get rid of excess inventory and bring inventory back to normal levels.
US retail sales rose 7.6 percent between November 1 and December 24
The increase is higher than the 7.1 percent growth forecast by Mastercard in September, but lower than last year
This led to strong demand for everything from toys to electronics in the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.
However, electronics sales fell 5.3 percent over the roughly two-month period, according to the Mastercard SpendingPulse report.
Sales in the apparel and restaurants categories rose 4.4 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively, helping to increase the total.
Online sales rose 10.6 percent during the period, down slightly from last year’s 11 percent increase, according to the Mastercard report.
Meanwhile, overall retail sales rose about 11 percent during Cyber Week, a separate report from Mastercard SpendingPulse showed in late November.
Mastercard SpendingPulse measures retail sales in-store and online across all payment types. This does not apply to car sales.
This year’s holiday retail sales growth is slower than last year as decades of inflation, rising interest rates and the threat of a recession have kept consumers cautious
Online sales rose 10.6 percent during the period, slightly less than last year’s 11 percent increase
Consumers this year spent a record $9.12 billion on Black Friday and another record $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest U.S. online shopping day ever times.
Shoppers hunted the latest games, electronics and toys for the holiday season, with Black Friday online spending up 2.3 percent year-on-year and Cyber Monday sales up 5.8 percent, according to the data by Adobe Analytics.
The report found that the hottest products for Black Friday were the Xbox Series X gaming console, merchandise for the children’s television show Bluey, copies of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II game, drones and Apple Macbooks.
On Cyber Monday, Lego was the most coveted product, followed by the Playstation 5 gaming console, Hot Wheels branded toys, copies of Madden NFL 23 and smartwatches.
While retailers launched promotions and discount offers as early as October to boost sales, inflation-weary shoppers had largely postponed their holiday shopping to Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday in hopes of finding the best deals.
Retailers like Amazon and Walmart offered big discounts during the holiday season to get rid of excess inventory and bring inventory back to normal levels
Consumers this year spent a record $9.12 billion on Black Friday and another record $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest U.S. online shopping day ever times
Inflation is one of the metrics used by the US Federal Reserve to measure the health of the economy.
Since 2012, the Federal Reserve has targeted an inflation rate of 2 percent for the US economy and can make monetary policy changes if inflation is not within this range.
A notable period of inflation was the early 1980s during the recession. Inflation rates rose as high as 14.93 percent, prompting the Federal Reserve to take dramatic action.
In its latest report, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics saw the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) rise 0.1 percent in November.
This comes after it rose 0.4 percent in October. In the last 12 months, the overall index rose by a seasonally adjusted 7.1 percent.