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29/12/2011 -
This year, consumer holiday spending seemed to be polarized between Thanksgiving weekend and the week before Christmas, with a relatively large "sales gap" in between. While online purchases helped drive record-breaking sales during Black Friday weekend, the week leading up to Christmas showed a remarkable uptick in activity over the same period in 2010.Data released Wednesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Group shows sales at U.S. retailers climbed 4.5 percent last week, compared to a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Gallup reported on Wednesday that overall consumer spending during the holiday shopping season is up 4.1 percent over the same period in 2010 and 4.2 percent from the year before that. The survey also found Americans predicted they would spend more on gifts during the November-December period than they did during the same time last year.
"Given this fuller context, many retailers are probably happy with an increase in overall consumer spending this Christmas holiday," writes Gallup chief economist Dennis Jacobe. "However, it may have come at a price to their bottom line. Retailers have had to be aggressive this year using heavy promotions and price discounting throughout the holidays."
Consequently, profit margins may not be as strong as many merchants had originally hoped.
