Holiday Sales, Rising 5.5 Percent to $692 Billion, Is 'Starting Point,' Says NRF CEO
Holiday sales breezed past forecasts in November and December, rising 5.5 percent over the 2016 period to reach $691.9 billion on “growing wages, stronger employment and higher confidence,” said the National Retail Federation Friday. Holiday retail sales volume includes $138.4…
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billion in online and other non-store sales -- up 11.5 percent over the year-ago period -- and excludes restaurants, car dealers and gas stations. NRF had forecast that non-store sales, including e-commerce, would grow 11-15 percent to between $137.7 billion and $142.6 billion, it said. Overall results exceeded NRF forecasts of $678.7 billion-$682 billion. Results were better "than anything we could have hoped for, especially given the misleading headlines of the past year,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay, calling the 2017 holiday season a “starting point.” With tax cuts “putting more money into consumers’ pockets, we are confident that retailers will have a very good year ahead,” Shay said: “Retail has proven once again that it is the most nimble industry in the economy, able to transform and reinvent itself to meet always-changing consumer demands.” Retail looks different than it did 10 years ago, he said, "and it certainly won’t look the same in another 10 years.”