If you’re wondering how well the economy is doing, all you have to do is look at holiday sales. The stock market might show some volatility, but that’s not the only indicator. If people are doing well, and feel confident, they will let loose during the holiday season. That means they have extra money and earnings are doing fairly well.
So far, the early data for 2018 looks excellent! This appears to be one of the best holiday seasons in over 6 years. SpendingPulse, which tracks both online and in-store spending, found that the total U.S. retail rose over 5.1%. This is compared to last year’s holiday season numbers. All forms of payment are included in the numbers.
The 2018 Holiday Season by the Numbers
Mastercard has released the figures. American consumers spent over $850 billion this holiday season. The stock-market corrections, nor the government shutdown, seemed to have any impact. Consumer confidence remains high. Many attribute the numbers to Trump’s tax cuts, increasing wages, and the number of available jobs.
If there are more people finding work, then that’s more people buying gifts for loved ones. Spending has remained high throughout the holiday season. They haven’t slowed down a bit since the first of November. E-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales were both up as well, but online shopping helped propel the numbers forward.
Online sales alone were 26.4% higher than they were the year before. December found a small slowdown happen for sales. That mainly has to do with the fact that Thanksgiving came earlier this year. It’s hard to sustain increased spending for an extra amount of time. But, as expected, holiday season spending picked right back up ahead of Christmas.
It also didn’t hurt that Christmas was on a Tuesday this year. Monday, Christmas Eve, saw a major push of shoppers looking for last-minute deals.
Fierce Competition
Amazon, Walmart, Target, and other major brands have been duking it out over the past few years. Amazon was easily taking larger chunks of the market share, which prompted Walmart and Target to adapt. They had to figure out a way to be like Amazon and update their website. This holiday season, they were ready to compete with the giant for online sales.
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Walmart and Target specifically extended their own ‘guaranteed delivery by Christmas’ deadlines. Amazon took things a step further by offering same-day delivery up to Christmas Eve in select cities. Other options included ordering online and picking up at the store later. Those sales were up as much as 47%.
Brick-and-mortar sales rose 3.3% from last year’s holiday season. Department sales, once a leader, saw a continued declined of 1.3%. This had to do mostly with several major closings throughout the year. Either way, it would appear as if holiday shopping is moving back in the right direction.
