spendingpulse 2009 holiday wrap-up report

8/14/2019 SpendingPulse 2009 Holiday Wrap-Up Report

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SpendingPulse 2009 Holiday Wrap-Up Report:

A Stronger December Caps a Stabilizing Retail Environment as

Sectors Show Positive Year-over-Year Growth since Black Friday

This Year, Driven by Strategy, Not Panic, Retailers Hold the Line on Discounting

SpendingPulse

Data Source: A macro-economic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail and service

sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments

network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms,such as cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not representMasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard

Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide.

Purchase, N.Y. December 28, 2009 MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, a macro-economic

report tracking national retail and service sales, today provided summary results for the holiday

shopping season. The data showed year-over-year growth in the period between Black Friday

through December 24 in all sectors measured. In addition, six out of ten sectors showed positive

growth in the period from November 1 through December 24. Tempering these results, however,

is the fact that there was an extra day this year over last years holiday season. Adjusting for this

could decrease the seasons year over-year-growth statistics by anywhere from 2% to 4%.

Overall this year, we have seen increasing stability in spending, as opposed to the free-fall of

2008, noted Michael McNamara, Vice President, Research and Analysis for SpendingPulse.

This is especially significant considering that prices have been holding up this season, without the

broad emergency discounting that consumers benefited from during the 2008 holiday season.

McNamara pointed to several anomalies in the season this year. The extra shopping day may

have given some lift to overall year-over-year comparisons. Also, early discounting in 2008 drew

holiday spending into early November, while this year shopping didnt really take off until Black

Friday. That shift in sales patterns is one of the factors that made November of this year look

weak, and December look stronger. Thats why its important to look at numbers for November

and December combined. Finally, several major winter storms disrupted traffic to brick and

mortar locations that seemed to benefit online shopping growth rates.

SpendingPulse analyzed the Electronics, Specialty (Apparel), eCommerce and Luxury sectors.

Here are the end of season highlights:

eCommerce

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eCommerce was the big winner this year, with seasonal sales up 15.5% during the period

November 1 -December 24. Since Black Friday, eCommerce sales were up 18%. This sector has

shown year-over-year improvement every week since the beginning of the season, with double-

digit growth in all but one of those weeks.

Apparel

Specialty Apparel made something of a recovery, finishing down only 0.4% for the season to datebeginning on November 1st. Since Black Friday through December 24, the category is actually in

positive territory, showing a 2.3% year-over-year gain. However, the extra shopping day helpedthe sales growth rates.

Womens Apparel sales were down 0.3% for the season to date beginning on November 1st.

Taking a Black Friday to December 24 view, this category also finished the season in slightly

positive territory, up 1.5%, but again benefiting from the additional shopping day.

Mens Apparel continued to show strength in the two weeks prior to December 24, bringing the

November 1 December 24 seasons year-over-year growth up 3.9%. Footwear sales have

likewise improved, ending with an increase of 5% over the November-December period of last

year.

Electronics

After a strong November, electronics sales began to slow down in the first two weeks of

December. A spike in the week prior to December 24 helped the category finish the season up

5.9% for the November-December period and up 6% in the Black Friday to December 24 period.

Jewelry and Luxury

After a volatile two months, Jewelry ended the season up 5.6%, with both high and low ends of the

category showing marked strength. Again the extra shopping day helped the year-over-year

growth rate. Although the Luxury retail ex-jewelry category showed some weekly improvement

throughout December, it finished the season more with a slight increase of 0.8% over the 2008

holiday season. Luxury is another category that would have been lower without the additionalshopping day this year.

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For further information contact:

Meir Kahtan Jennifer Stalzer

+1-212-575-8188 +1-914-249-5325

Meir Kahtan Public Relations, LLC MasterCard Worldwide

[email protected] [email protected]

About MasterCard Advisors

MasterCard Advisors provides payments consulting, information, analytics, and customizedservices to financial institutions and their merchant partners worldwide. Addressing complex

challenges in strategy, marketing, risk, and operations, MasterCard Advisors helps clients

maximize the value of their payments businesses. As the professional services arm of MasterCard

Worldwide, MasterCard Advisors is uniquely qualified to provide clients with insights andsolutions that drive tangible impact and financial gain. For more information, go to

www.mastercardadvisors.com.


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About MasterCard Worldwide

MasterCard Worldwide advances global commerce by providing a critical economic link among

financial institutions, businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide. As afranchisor,

processor and advisor, MasterCard develops and markets payment solutions, processes

approximately 21 billion transactions each year, and provides industry-leadinganalysis and

consulting services to financial-institution customers and merchants. Powered by the MasterCard

Worldwide Network and through its family of brands, includingMasterCard, Maestro andCirrus, MasterCard serves consumers and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories.

For more information go towww.mastercard.com.

spendingpulse 2009 holiday wrap-up report

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