Holiday Retail Spending Has ‘Some Catching Up to Do,’ Says Weekly NPD Report
Crowded stores and more online buyers characterized Thanksgiving week ended Nov. 25, but retail spending on general merchandise categories “fell short” of that in the comparable 2016 holiday week, said NPD Thursday in its weekly point-of-sale report. Spending for the…
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week was 2 percent lower than a year earlier, NPD said. Declines in the third and fourth week of November “dulled” the holiday selling season’s “early lead” over holiday 2016, and were up 2 percent cumulatively for the four weeks through Nov. 25, NPD said. The number of online buyers increased by more than 30 percent from a year earlier on Thanksgiving day, Black Friday and the Saturday after, but only on Saturday did the average e-commerce basket size increase by more than 2 percent, it said: “The increase in shopping traffic didn’t result in more spending, so this holiday season has some catching up to do.”