Holiday Retail Sales Hit New Record
Consumers may have been concerned about pricing heading into the holiday season, but new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show Americans were out shopping to close out 2024.
Retail sales during the holiday season were up 4% over 2023, hitting a record $994.1 billion. This figure beat the National Retail Federation’s forecast of growth between 2.5% and 3.5%. For the full year, retail sales were up 3.6% to $5.28 trillion.
“Consumers came out to spend this holiday season and clearly underscored the solid growth in the US economy,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist with the National Retail Federation. “The spending pace was back to pre-pandemic growth and indicates a good start for the year ahead.”
The holiday total, which is not adjusted for inflation, includes online and other non-store sales, which were up 8.6% at $296.7 billion. The NRF had forecast that the category would grow between 8% and 9% to between $295.1 billion and $297.9 billion. Online holiday sales were $273.3 billion in 2023.
The $5.28 trillion in core retail sales for the full year reached the top end of NRF’s forecast that 2024 annual sales would also grow between 2.5% and 3.5% to between $5.23 trillion and $5.28 trillion. Sales during 2023 totaled $5.1 trillion, which was the previous full-year spending record.
While the shorter holiday shopping calendar likely influenced the continued trend of more online shopping, Kleinhenz said there was also a return to in-person shopping experiences and a focus on early buying.
“The 2024 figures were driven in part by lower inflation compared with 2023, particularly for goods,” he said. “Even though consumers are still relatively healthy and there was a notable increase in spending, they remain budget conscious.”
November/December holiday sales saw year-over-year gains in seven of nine retail categories, led by online sales, furniture stores, and electronics and appliances stores. Specifics from key sectors for the two months combined, all on an unadjusted year-over-year basis, include:
- Online and other non-store sales were up 8.6%
- Furniture and home furnishings stores were up 5.6%
- Electronics and appliance stores were up 3.7%
- Health and personal care stores were up 3%
- Clothing and clothing accessory stores were up 2.8%
- General merchandise stores were up 2.4%
- Grocery and beverage stores were up 2.1%
- Building materials and garden supply stores were unchanged
- Sporting goods stores were unchanged
