Holiday Season Delivers U.S. Retail Its Biggest Sales Bump in Six Years
*By Kristen Lee*
This holiday season was a happy one for U.S. retail, which saw its biggest sales bump in six years, according to MasterCard.
Retail sales, excluding car purchases, rose 5.1 percent year-over-year for the key holiday shopping period between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24 to reach more than $850 billion.
As expected, online spending led that surge, with a 19.1 increase in online spending during that same period, according to MasterCard.
But more surprisingly, brick-and-mortar sales also increased 3.3 percent. According to Adobe Analytics, a key trend boosting brick-and-mortar was a 47 percent spike in "Buy Online Pick-up In Store" spending, otherwise known as BOPIS. The rise in BOPIS benefits both consumers and retailers. Retailers save on shipping costs and can pass those savings on to consumers in the form of discounts. Also, when customers comes to stores for pick-up, they are more likely to spend more on impulse purchases there.
More broadly, improved retail sales this year can be attributed to better inventory levels, fewer promotions and greater investments in e-commerce platforms, Elaine Low, a reporter for Investor's Business Daily, told Cheddar Wednesday.
However, the success was not universal.
"What you're seeing really is this further widening gap between the winners and the losers in the space. You have the folks who are really doubling down on ecommerce, who are making investments in their technology platforms, and are really hoping to drive shoppers to buy more even while they are in-store," she said. "And you also have the guys on the other end of the spectrum, who are playing catch up with their e-com investments."
Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30. The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared to the same period a year ago. The gain follows two quarters of steep declines as people turned off by CEO Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics avoided buying his company’s cars and even protested at some dealerships. Sales rose to 497,099 vehicles, compared with 462,890 in the same period last year.
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