Shoppers spent a lot less than experts expected during the 2012 holiday season, though sales did grow by double digits.
Researcher comScore reported on Thursday that sales from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 reached $42.3 billion, a 14-percent increase compared to the 2011 holiday season when sales totaled $37.17 billion.
That’s still a gain, but experts had projected sales would increase by more than 16 percent, says comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.
“We fell $1 billion short of our expected total of $43.4 billion,” he notes. “While November started out at a very healthy 16-percent growth rate through the promotional period of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers almost immediately pulled back on spending, apparently due to concerns over the looming fiscal cliff and what that might mean for their household budgets in 2013.”
During the first four weeks of the 2012 holiday season, shoppers spent 15 percent to 17 percent more than they did the previous year, comScore finds. However, on week five, sales only grew by 11 percent year over year. The following week, sales were up by just 9 percent year over year, reaching about $6.63 billion. Week nine saw an increase of just 1 percent.
“While it is typical to see growth rates subside slightly during the week after Thanksgiving, the amplified and sustained lull this year came as something of a surprise,” Fulgoni continues.
He says that if Americans had not had the fiscal cliff on their minds, indicators suggest it might have been a merrier Christmas for online sellers.
“Growth in the mid-teens for the season is still very encouraging—and certainly many times better than brick-and-mortar—[but] it was perhaps a slightly disappointing result given the initial expectations,” he reports.
The biggest buying day of the 2012 holiday season was Cyber Monday, the day after Thanksgiving, when sales reached $1.46 billion.
Take another look at the 2012 holiday season and see how it compared to 2011.
