Mastercard Inc has come up with a report which shows that this holiday season more consumers spent on online shopping, which pushed the “e-commerce sales” figures to a “record high”.
Holiday season marks a crucial time for retailers wherein they collect nearly 40% of their annual sales. This year e-commerce sales accounted for “14.6% of total retail” and hit a “18.8%” higher figure in comparison to 2018. A senior advisor of Mastercard, Steve Sadove said:
“E-commerce sales hit a record high this year with more people doing their holiday shopping online”.
“Due to a later than usual Thanksgiving holiday, we saw retailers offering omnichannel sales earlier in the season, meeting consumers’ demand for the best deals across all channels and devices”.
Heavy investments were made by the retailers to match the consumers’ expectations, which included the “same-day delivery”, “lockers for store pick-up” and improving their online presence to grab a market share amid the presence of “retail giant Amazon.com Inc”. In a tweet, the President of the U.S., Donald Trump wrote:
“2019 HOLIDAY RETAIL SALES WERE UP 3.4% FROM LAST YEAR, THE BIGGEST NUMBER IN U.S. HISTORY. CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!,”. (sic)
Nevertheless, the spokesperson of Mastercard, William Tsang stated that this year’s sales figures from the holiday season wasn’t the “biggest ever” whereby citing “5.1%” total sales growth seen in 2018. However, no immediate comments came from the White House on this “apparent discrepancy”.
According to analyst and retail consultants, even the there is slowing down of global growth, the consumers from the U.S. on the other hand are profiting from the “wage growth and a strong labor market”. Reuters has also reported:
“The holiday season was challenging for retailers after Amazon expanded its free return policy to include products that were not previously eligible, giving consumers until January to return even small purchases bought on the website”.
As per the forecast made by the National Retail Federation, the retail sales in the U.S. over two holiday months are likely to grow “between 3.8% and 4.2%”.
References:
reuters.com
Holiday season marks a crucial time for retailers wherein they collect nearly 40% of their annual sales. This year e-commerce sales accounted for “14.6% of total retail” and hit a “18.8%” higher figure in comparison to 2018. A senior advisor of Mastercard, Steve Sadove said:
“E-commerce sales hit a record high this year with more people doing their holiday shopping online”.
“Due to a later than usual Thanksgiving holiday, we saw retailers offering omnichannel sales earlier in the season, meeting consumers’ demand for the best deals across all channels and devices”.
Heavy investments were made by the retailers to match the consumers’ expectations, which included the “same-day delivery”, “lockers for store pick-up” and improving their online presence to grab a market share amid the presence of “retail giant Amazon.com Inc”. In a tweet, the President of the U.S., Donald Trump wrote:
“2019 HOLIDAY RETAIL SALES WERE UP 3.4% FROM LAST YEAR, THE BIGGEST NUMBER IN U.S. HISTORY. CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!,”. (sic)
Nevertheless, the spokesperson of Mastercard, William Tsang stated that this year’s sales figures from the holiday season wasn’t the “biggest ever” whereby citing “5.1%” total sales growth seen in 2018. However, no immediate comments came from the White House on this “apparent discrepancy”.
According to analyst and retail consultants, even the there is slowing down of global growth, the consumers from the U.S. on the other hand are profiting from the “wage growth and a strong labor market”. Reuters has also reported:
“The holiday season was challenging for retailers after Amazon expanded its free return policy to include products that were not previously eligible, giving consumers until January to return even small purchases bought on the website”.
As per the forecast made by the National Retail Federation, the retail sales in the U.S. over two holiday months are likely to grow “between 3.8% and 4.2%”.
References:
reuters.com
