While Black Friday weekend may have been something of a letdown for many retailers, spending was strong for the entire month of November, according to the U.S. Commerce
Department. And experts say that’s a jolly good sign.
“We still feel very bullish about the holiday season,” says Collin Brinkman, director of
retail practice at Deloitte. Earlier this year, the consulting company had predicted robust gains, “with consumers reporting they intended to spend 13% more, and with spending on gifts
increasing 9%. Entertaining at home was really hit hard during the recession, and we are seeing a big uplift in that area.”
Those numbers were crunched even before gas prices
fell to their current lower levels, “and a little extra jingle in people’s pockets never hurts,” he tells Marketing Daily. Its survey found that more people were planning to
do the bulk of their holiday shopping in December — 43%, up 6 percentage points from 2013. “Retailers have trained shoppers really well,” he says. “They are more patient about
waiting for items to go on sale.”
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The National Retail Federation says that the November sales gains — a 0.6% advance from the prior month, and a 3.2% jump from last
November — are in line with its predictions as well.
“As we’ve said all along, retailers are optimistic that they will see healthy holiday sales gains this
year,” says CEO Matt Shay in its release. “November sales results confirm that optimism, and we are steadfast in our belief that we are on track to reach the 4.1% growth in holiday sales
that NRF forecasted in October.”
He reiterated that many in the industry expect that Super Saturday, which this year falls on Dec. 20, will be the biggest sales day of the
year.
The NRF reported that every category registered gains in November, led by appliances and electronics, with a 6.1% bump from last November, building material and garden
equipment climbing 4.7%; and health and personal care stores, up 4.6%.
While clothing and accessories stores also gained — up 2.5% according to
the NRF analysis — Brinkman points out that sales of apparel can be impacted by weather shifts, and that many retailers, in an effort to be more conservative, went into the
season with lower inventories: “And clothing has been accounting for a declining share of the gift market for several years now.”