As expected, shoppers took a break last week as the typical lull set in after a record-setting Black Friday weekend.
Redbook Research saw same-store sales growth of 3.2% for the week ending Dec 3rd, a steep drop from the 5.4% gain the prior week. Noting that this is typical of post-Thanksgiving and momentum will slowly build up as we approach Christmas, Redbook Analyst Caitlin Levis said “This shopping pattern has intensified as customers have learned to shop at the last minute to exploit merchant markdowns.”
The ICSC reported that chain store sales declined by a steep 2.7% from the prior week, but still managed to post the 2nd-strongest year-on-year growth (3.8%) in four months.
Michael Niemira, ICSC’s vice president of research and chief economist, said, “Despite the weekly dip, the year-over-year pace continues to be healthy as the overall holiday-gift completion rate jumped in the latest week compared with the same period of 2010.”
According to the ICSC‐Goldman Sachs’ consumer tracking surveys, the average percentage of holiday shopping consumers have completed (excluding those who haven’t started shopping) jumped significantly over last year reaching 56.9%, compared to just 50.1% in the same week in 2010.
This tracks similar to other surveys we’ve seen which suggest many shoppers have already completed their holiday shopping and Black Friday weekend might have pulled sales into November from December, meaning retailers will now be counting on a late December push more than ever to meet plan.
E-commerce spending, however, doesn’t seem to have seen much of a lull as comScore says total online holiday spending to date has increased 15% to nearly $20 billion. Continue reading ‘Wednesday News & Notes: Shoppers Take a Break’
