This holiday season was a merry one for U.S. retailers. A new report says holiday sales saw the largest year-over-year increase since 2011.
According to the Mastercard SpendingPulse report, holiday sales jumped 4.9 percent this year when compared to 2016. The report traced sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24.
Another report, this one published by Customer Growth Partners, said that consumers spent $598 billion during this holiday season. That’s a jump from $565 billion last year.
The week before Christmas was an especially strong one for retailers. This isn’t surprising. The National Retail Federation reported that more than six in 10 holiday shoppers planned on purchasing their last holiday gift during the week of Dec. 18 through 24.
The federation reported that “Super Saturday,” the last Saturday before Christmas, was expected to be the biggest day of the year for retailers. According to the federation, 53 percent of consumers – or about 126 million people – were expected to be finishing their shopping on that day.
